My friend Jeff Pringle has been using his own method to smelt magnetite sand from the beach into high-carbon steel for years. About a week ago we used a slightly new approach to make a small “biscuit” of very sound metal which was large enough to yield two knife blades. Here are some pictures of the process.
Crucible with Sand and Glass
A crucible was filled with pre-reduced magnetite sand plus some charcoal dust and topped with glass shards from a broken bottle to provide slag.
Crucible IN Furnace ON
The crucible was brought to a very high temperature in a simple refractory-blanket furnace fired with natural gas.
Crucible OUT Furnace OFF
After the magnetite had been reduced to steel the furnace was dismantled and the crucible was allowed to cool before breaking out the ingot at the bottom.
Biscuit
A high-carbon steel biscuit was formed which weighed over a pound. The dendritic crystal structure of the metal was visible in the surface texture of the top.
Forged Blade
The ingot was cut in half to forge into two knife blades. The metal was very sound and, with some care, forged with almost no cracks. This blade is about 9″ long.
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