Re: Iron Working?

Dear Thomas,

I'm afraid that I know very little about this subject, so about the best I can do is point you in the right direction for some more research. I got onto an email-list called "arch-metals", which is devoted to discussion of all aspects of archaeo-metallurgy - that is, the study of prehistoric methods of metallurgy. I posed the question on to the list of whether there was any good Web resources that would explain the process of iron smelting in Medieval times. Here are the responses I got:

I don't know of any WWW resources on this, but there's plenty on good old fashioned print on the subject. I recommend R.F. Tylecote, A History of Metallurgy, 2nd edition (London: Institute of Metallurgy, 1992)and W. Rostoker and B. Bronson, PreIndustrial Iron (Philadelphia: Archaeomaterials)as good places to start. Where you go from there depends very much upon your specific interest. If it is American ironworking that interests you, then I highly recommend Robert Gordon's American Iron: 1607-1900 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1996).
Dave Killick
Department of Anthropology/Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Arizona

[M]edieval iron smelting is a matter of local and chronological developments and changes, controled by many factors like ore quality, economic constrains (capital-intensive large furnaces vs. small scale seasonal smelting), quality demand etc. Bloomery process and the various 'modern' medieval smelting techniques of different high furnace types co-existed over many centuries, often very close-by. Hence, the matters appears much to complex and specific to allow a www-site to outline *the* medieval iron smelting, sorry!
Cheers,
Thilo Thilo Rehren,
rehren@dmt-lb.cubis.de

There is not [a comprehensive Web site], as far as I know. But even if there was it is likely that it would only deal with one aspect of medieval iron smelting. You need to define your question more specifical, defining the region and the period. Also I wonder what is the real question behind your question. During this period, the bloomery, the high bloomery and the blast furnace were all in operation in various parts of Europe. Are you interested in iron smelting, or the products of the process? The are a number of well excavated iron smelting furnaces in Britain, France and Switzerland published. I can give you some references should you wish. For more general reading try Paul Craddock's recent book, or some of Ronnie Tylecote's publications, the Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society - (one of the Society's metallurgical data sheets has a set of schematic drawing of various excavated classes of bloomeries including several medieval forms), and Archaeomaterials (now defunct).
I have just finished a report on an early Medieval iron smelting site in Somerset, which I intend to put on the WWW but that will take a month or so while I work out how to deal with the catalogue. Having dealt with bloomeries and blast furnaces of all periods for the last 20 years, including running Iron Age bloomeries, I am willing to answer your question in more detail, if you can give a little background to the question.
Yours
Chris Salter
University of Oxford. E-mail: chris.salter@materials.oxford.ac.uk

If you would like to pursue this question further, I suggest you check at a local library for some of the references listed above. You might also like to look at some of these Web sites which I found a little helpful:

The Archaeo-metallurgy mail list (archives, subscription info)

Experiments on Copper-Smelting at Rocca San Silvestro, organized by the University of Siena. Has some sketches and a little explanation of a possible prehistoric process of copper smelting.

University of Bradford, Ancient Metallurgy Research Group
University of Bradford, Archaeometallurgical links

Regards,
Tod