SCA 50 Bloomery Smelt a la Wareham Forge

It was my great good fortune to attend the SCA 50 year celebration, and while I was there I spent a fair amount of time hanging out (and occasionally helping out) at the "Bloomery Iron Smelt" experiment that Darrell Markewitz ran.

It was the first time I'd ever actually been at the forge when the bloom was extracted, and I have to say I was pretty overwhelmed. I had to leave early Wednesday morning, so I'm not sure how the into-the-night reheat or next-morning compaction went, but I was glad to be there nonetheless.

Here's a short video showing some of what we did:

Hope you enjoy.