To forge a WOOTZ steel and Manufacture

[Andrew-Nordic]

I took one of them and diffusion
heated, heat cycled and forged it down to a bar.......

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If you got questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Best wishes,

Andrew
__________________
With greetings from Russia.
Escaping from frosts, I work in a smithy with two girls.

[spaknives]

I have heard of others forging down ingots, But I am not sure what an ingot realy is. Could you please tell us a little info on ingots. Thanks, Shane

[Don Halter]

Andrew, thanks for posting this. Can you tell me more about your furnace set-up? Is that side blown propane system? How long does it take it to melt and how long do you keep it in a molten state?


What are you using for crucibles? I tried a pure graphite crucible, which worked great as far as resisting cracks due to thermal expansion. I was amazed at just how fast the carbon was absorbed by the molten metal, though! I ended up with some saturated cast iron when I was done. I now have some pure clay crucibles I picked up at a mining assay store, but haven't had a chance to try them yet.



P.S. Shane, when you melt metal and cast it into a bar, or any other shape. The bar of metal before being worked into something is referred to as an ingot. In this case, the solidified hunk of wootz steel when taken from the crucible is referred to as an ingot.

[J.Arthur Loose]

I'm looking forward to seeing the blade.

[Robert Mayo]

In the final photo it looks like the blade is ground and etched . I look forward to seeing the whole blade.

[Keith Montgomery]

I would also love to see a photo of the completed blade.