Thread: Ore

While working in our railroad yard, I noticed a bunch of iron ore that I hadn't noticed before. They did a bit of digging not too long ago to put in "yard air" so that the air systems on the cars would be fully charged & I guess they dug up a bunch of ore. My question to you guys who have taken ore and made it useful...should I mess with it or leave it. I am sure I can pick up about 50 pounds of it from the sizes of a volley ball to baseball sizes. I can't remember, but I believe Tim Zowada has messed around with ore, but my memory isn't clear on how a useable material was gained from it. I just think it would be pretty cool to take something from the earth and make it into a tool.

It's a thousand times easier (and possibly cheaper) to just buy finished metal, but if you want to do it for fun it will keep you entertained and give your arms a good work out.
Most useable ore is between 50% and 75% iron. The fast way to get the iron out is to run it through a blast furnace, but not a lot of people have those at home. The old fashion way to do it is to heat the ore up in a forge and beat it with a hammer - the iron will not melt, but will get soft and spongy and the silicates will remain hard and fall off during the hammering. Well, not all of silicates will fall off, but a good bit of it will. This will leave you with wrought iron. (Google for bloomery smelting for more information)

You can then take the wrought iron and melt it using an oxy acetylene, add some lime to the mix, and blast it with a bunch of air. The lime will create a slag on top of the iron with most of the impurities in the slag. Scrape the slag off and pour the molten iron into a sand bed. You now have pig iron that is about 4% carbon and very brittle.

With pig iron you can go in two different directions. You can create cast iron by adding some more iron and some alloys or you can move on to an open-hearth furnace and create steel by using pure oxygen, fluxes, and alloys.

If you enjoy doing metal work it is a fun and educational thing to do. But make sure you know the fastest route to the closest hospital with a burn unit.

SWMBO will not like the smoke. It would be easier adding carbon to melted coat hangers than smelting the iron outa the ore. Iva done it with the ore but WOW it takes all day. My son and I managed to make a very small puck of pot metal doing the ore thing. You also have to use flux..sand..glass...borax...Im saying its easier to add the carbon to the iron to make the steel. Im all for this..
Good luck and post what happens..Try doing it on a small scale first as a test. be safe too...My air compressor blowing into a hot bed of coals and coke got to melt temps..5 psi and another person throttling the air helps. Or you can just heat up a strip of 1084 or 95 and hammer it from there..much easier. Just like criswilson10 said...MUCH EASIER. But if you wanna go the full smelt...look up an aristotal furnace..I cant spell. Back to the puck..It did hammer out ok and made a knife...slag and flux flies everywhere please be careful. Im not joking.. be careful. A razor no, didnt happen. knife yes..

Mike blue has done melting like this. And I think Randy as well. However, it's a ton of work and effort in order to maybe end up with something you can use. Using bloomer steel itself also has a learning curve. In other words, this could be fun to do just for the sake of it, but not for any practical reason.

Yes it is a lot of work...some people do not realize how much work it is. And theres a LOT of smoke...your neighbors might wonder..what I do is throw a grid over it and bbq. Steel...smoke...bbq you can't go wrong with that. Those little aristotle furnaces get hot fast. MUCH easier than a forge i guess. The scraps Iva melted ..1 in 4 25% are good BUT its a lot of work.Take a magnet and stick it in the dirt...withdraw and look at it..thats iron. Now heat that iron.. actually put all those iron molicules together...THEN heat it. Its easier to cut and grind and just hammer a strip of 1095. Ask a pro thats on SRP..Hes a master at this.

My neighbors are used to me on the propane forge and banging away on the anvil. The shop and forge area are a far enough from the house to worry about smoke and noise. I just can't help but to think about re-using stuff out there on the rail. I know spikes are just too soft, springs so far have been a bust, and saw the ore and here we are. Even if I were to just use it as decoration on handles of knives I think it would be cool. I'll have to research it more. I know there are plenty of pro's here, but this is that stuff that only a few have gotten in to.

I did have a good day at the forge today though, pretty sure I got three deba's to show hamon...will be sure after I get them tempered so I can get them back to the grinder.

IIRC, smelting ore is different from running your propane forge. I think when randy did his smelt, it was 24 to 48 hours of nonstop burning and adding charcoal and ore. You can just toss everything in, light a match and come back next day to check the results. It's a continuous process, which is one of the reasons the material is so expensive.

The results of smelting your material will be rewarding beyond imagination. When you start hammering that bloom you'll see. Just be careful. flux flux flux...flux will work on your side. Just be careful as that melted flux flies everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE. Have you ever done the slag dance? A friend of mine named John Flurry pours brass and bronze at the Monterey sculpture center. this is him doing it..

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ask him about the slag dance.

Ask him his take on smelting iron and adding carbon to make steel.. Yes they have a furnace there..its in Marina CA by a runway..lol
The shots of him pouring brass at night are amazing..he hates being photagraphed while he works. Just ask him. Hes a good man pouring melted stuff.

If you ever come to Monterey CA look out on the ocean and you'll see a bronze cast mermaid.. He made that. He made the dolphins swimming around the fountains at the 'hotel' lol..he made those too.
We used to sit around and taklk about how much things are the same.. Ask me or my dad about the slag dance.

That 3rd pic is him doing the nozzle for the volunteers at the PGFD. He wanted to cast them a new diver down bell but city wont allow it..I have no idea why they wont allow it. Believe me it's not money. John would do it for free.. oh ya ask him about the slag dance, scars etc. He'll go on for days. BTW you can go watch him work...it is free.

Scott,

Depending on the type of ore, you can make steel. It is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, and has become a regular part of my production.

Smelting is not for beginners. it is a good idea to get some practice at forging, and forge welding, first. You will need to have access to a power hammer, or press.

Here are some links you might find interesting:

Lee Sauder - Lee is the best. You can get going by reading everything on his web site.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3617...981/?ref=br_tf

http://straightrazorpalace.com/vendo...my-career.html

More photos of that project here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...3075024&type=3

I hope this helps.

Tim Z.

You can extract the iron. making steel is another beast.

Smelting is not for beginners. it is a good idea to get some practice at forging, and forge welding, first. You will need to have access to a power hammer, or press.

Well said Tim.

Forge welding takes a fast hand, At least 2 people working together keeps it easier.