Bog Iron burning in Budalen - Norway
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- A bloomery is a type of furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a bloom. The mix of slag and iron in the bloom, termed sponge iron, is usually consolidated and further forged into wrought iron. Blast furnaces, which produce pig iron, have largely superseded bloomeries.
In Trøndelag in Norway the earliest forms of iron smelting can be divided into 3 eras, based on the historical findings of the area. In the first era, that lasted from about 300 BC to about 600 AD, a furnace dubbed the “Roman times-furnace” was used. In the second era, approximately between 700 and 1300 AD the “Viking age-furnace” was used, and lastly, between 1400 and 1850, the Evenstad-furnace. The Evenstad-furnace was named after a farmer and sheriff in Stor-Elvdal in Norway, Ole Olsen Evenstad (1739-1806). He wrote a manuscript with very detailed descriptions about the production of bog iron, and the tools required in the process. The manuscript was translated to several languages, and it has been an important source of information on the subject.
This production process often took place some distance away from the farms, in areas where both iron ore and wood were available. The process starts off with gathering bog ore and wood, which should be left to dry for some time. The ore then needs to be roasted before the smelting can take place. The product you’re left with after the smelting contains some impurities, so it needs to be further processed in a forge before you’ve achieved making wrought iron, which was used in the production of nails, tools, and weapons among other things.
heliks.no/
Hello from Pennsylvania in the United States. First, thanks for the great video and for keeping this traditional method alive. My region of Pennsylvania has quite a few Furnaces as well as lots of areas with Limekiln in their names. This lovely video made my history come to life. Keep up the wonderful work and it looks like a new generation has joined. Bravo!
In all my years of hunting and fishing I've seen dozens of places like that bog. They had that "oily sheen" on top and the brown color too. I never would've guess you could make iron from it!
You should give up hunting and starting making iron instead!
A people who remember and value their past, is a people for the ages.
Deep respect.
Those who don't know their history is bound to repeat it.
Keeping the old ways and the old skills alive. We shall need them.
Understanding the ways of the old world is never a bad thing. let's hope we don't need it :)
Love the people and love this country. People of Norway, I salute you
Thanks !
I've heard it said, that to live the American Dream, you need to move to Norway!
Little Stoltenberg war mongers.
This was very interesting! What a lesson in early Ironworks in Scandinavia. Excellent film work. Thank you very much for making and sharing this. Also, hats off to the gentlemen who keep this tradition alive.
Old world worked a lot harder for sure! It's amazing to see this process! Thank you so much for sharing this bit of history with us! Watching from the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island in Canada! Cheers, Kimmers and Jerbs 👍🏽🇨🇦🔥
thank you for watching and leaving this kind comment :)
In the American south pre Civil war Tennessee,Alabama and parts of Georgia were covered with small iron bloomeries. Locals called them Furnaces. Many of these locations are historic sites.They were all put out of business when the big steel companies got going using Iron Range ore. Great video BTW
Thanks for comments. Did they extract it in a similar way?
@@_heliks I believe so. At least one's just been refurbished to cast shells for the Russians 😏 (always consider the end delivery), as the usage is outstripping the supply six-to-one. Ore, sulphur, carbon, pour off the slag, the rest goes straight to a massive roller line, at least in Port Talbot, Wales. They filmed some of Harry Potter on the beach next door!
It occurred to me that this process seems similar to the Blast Furnace technique that Bessemer perfected (most notably at Sloss Furnace in Birmingham. I sometimes wonder just how much low-grade iron ore is left in Red Mountain (It's still pretty red, after all!).
@@garyblack8717 The 1350 discovery used air injection. Jan van Helmont discovered oxygen in the mid 17th Century, then Bessemer started using it instead. There's an odd side-track, a family member was plant manager of a precious metals refinery in the 1980s, and led the team which made the Platinol-Cisplatin breakthrough a decade later. That, coincidentally, happened when his own niece was administered it in extremis. The odd thing is, both that work and van Helmont's original experiment was undertaken in a pre-chymical setting.
They are all over Pennsylvania also we used to go and pick the cool colored slag chips
Absolutely fascinating! It's good to see ancient skills have not been forgotten.
Ancient skills should not be forgotten!
Ancient skills: efficient skills that served our ancestors well. Should not be forgotten. Useful techniques. Important techniques.
The ability to live freely: to exist, and not be dependant on society.
Wonderful work and really interesting to see how iron came to life, I’m 50 yrs plus now and have wondered “how did we actually make basic iron itself” the iron smithies must have been a really skilled profession throughout history, after all if they made the iron from ore itself and gave customers products that they could use and would last so much longer than anything else, it had an enormous cost to it.
When I retire in another 15yrs or so, I’ll add it to my things to visit around the world tour, looks so very interesting, thank you for sharing your work and knowledge to everyone else around the world. Thanks. Philip 🇬🇧
I'm sure the guys would love for you to join them and help out!
That was really interesting. Thanks for the post.
Thank you for watching
I love watching stuff like this.
If I lived there I would definitely love to help out one time. Unfortunately, I live far away.
Greetings from Canada, Vancouver Island to be exact.
You should come over and help out! The guys would love it!
Thank you very much.
Thanks!
Idag är tid en bristvara. Tack för en mycket informativ och intressant tillbakablick hur det var förr i tiden.
Tusen takk! Hvis du likte denne anbefaler vi å sjekke ut vår film om Kullbrenning :)
That was really clever with regards the carbon content. So many go wrong at that stage. By keeping carbon within it, the metal became malleable and would not crumble due to being too clean and pure!
You've understood more than most from this video!
Really cool to see how much work went into producing a small chunk of iron and amazing that people figured out how to do it long ago really cool process 👍👍👍
People had a lot more time back then.. Or it's just that they didn't have netflix.
Very nice work fellas. Shame I could not have been their to help you all. Good day from USA.
So I looked up the book he references towards the end of the video ("A guy name Ole Evenstad who wrote down the entire process in detail"). It's called "Ole Evenstad's Treatise on the iron ore which is found in the bogs and marshes of Norway, and the method by which it is transformed into iron and steel (1790)" Or maybe thats what the translation calls it.
Here's a great quote from it "A righteous man makes no secret of the knowledge which he discovers and owns which can promote the common good."
Ole Evenstad was a great man!
Great video, thank you so much.
Thank you!
Great video.
Really cool to see this technology in practice, not just theory 🍻
thank you for watching and leaving this kind comment :)
That was amazing, truly inspiring. I'm a novice smith, and it's nice to be reminded how well off we are today. With steel being readily available in all shapes and sizes, not to mention the variety of steels we have. It can be easy to overlook what all went into the production of an iron bloom that size. This would be alot of fun to take part in, maybe one day. Ive seen on the black bear forge channel, John and a friend of his built a clay furnace to gain a bloom, that was very cool too. But this topped it in my book. Great work to you all, and thank you for keeping this special method alive today! 🍻
Thank you very much for this kind comment!
Really cool to see the progress. I am half Norwegian and love Scandinavian steel. I own many Scandi knives. Love what you do. I was also trained in history. Thanks.
And yet the old famous Norwegian swords were forged in Normandie (by Norse smiths) from steel from India or around there.
We need a little more info and historical evidence to believe that claim.
Veldig interessant! Takk for at du delte.
Tusen takk!
Tak for underteksterne :-)
Bare hyggelig!
Jeg havde også været helt fortabt uden! Normalt har jeg ikke svært ved at forstå norsk, men…
This is why iron prior to c1350 is only used in smaller pieces: plate armour needs a blast furnace. You could make maille from wire, and stitch plates onto a hauberk, but that was about it.
You are correct, thanks for interesting comment!
Underbart att se!
Ja!
Veldig bra gjort. Takk.
Takk fra vår side ihvertfall, tipper også Storkekkøya Jernbrennarlag også setter pris på trivelig tilbakemelding :)
Fantastiskt vacker natur!!
Ja! Budalen er veldig fint!
So much work to make a tool to ease life one task at a time
Hard times back then
Mycket intressant film, Tack.
Selv takk :)
Tøft!
Ja!
I have always been confused when people say raw iron is scarce, when it is all around us, especially in streams and rivers, and in this case, bogs!
But as the gentleman said, they did not have magnets back then, and had to work a bit more to gather it.
Where I find the most iron is when I am panning for gold, as gold and iron tend to follow the same path when being pushed down a stream bed.
Good quality, easy to work iron is much less common, but most places have something.
The Japanese Katana was folded to mitigate problems caused by poor quality iron. Also, historically getting the fire hot enough, keeping the metal at the right temperature was not trivial.
Would to participate in this! It's important to keep the old ways alive.
Cool thanks, I forged old New Orleans wrought iron in college had to heat it up way more than mild steel.
Cool!
All to do with loosening the phase structure. A very crystalline iron can be sharpened but is brittle, then the Saracens (possibly learned from the Far East) started damascening with wrought iron.
"THE IRONAGE" AMAZING VIDEO, THANKS,,,, FROM USA
Maybe we can put that as the english title?
@@_heliks yes, sure
Som boende i gammal svensk järnbygd, (vendel) så blev jag påmind om att jag velat göra något liknande länge nu. Tack!
Bare hyggelig!
WHAT A WONDERFUL SKILL TO HAVE ITS AMAZING WHAT CAN BE DONE.LONG LONG LONG LONG LIFE TO ALL OF YE MEN WONDERFUL WORK .BEST OF LUCK FROM ME IN WEST OF IRELAND .ITS AMAZING YOU WOULD WONder how first person thought of this .
Thank you very much
Amazing!
Thanks!
What I find interesting is you use neither a bloomery nor charcoal and you appear to get a good bloom. I've been looking for a process that would have been used in Viking times. This process predates the Vikings by maybe 1000 years. 500 or more just based on the fall of the Roman Empire and and the start of the Viking era. Thankyou gentlemen.
You are very welcome!
Thanks for this video so if we ever get knocked back into the Stone Age by all these politicians maybe we can get some iron too thanks again great video
Let's hope we avoid that. But understanding how thinks were done before is always good to understand the present.
Thank you for sharing this.
But I have to laugh when I ask: how many discoveries have been made throughout history because a bunch of men can't resist playing with fire?
Cheers
Probably most of them
Anything with the word “Bog” in it, has my attention.
Thats funny!
Wonderful
Thanks!
You can still find plenty of bog iron in swampy parts of southern New Jersey, USA. The swamp water there is dark red.
@@stephenporth1879 No, it's the Virgin Mary having her period.
Are there any parts of new jersey which isn't swamp?
And that is why iron was so expensive and prized in the early iron-age. The effort and resources required to make a few Kg of iron was huge. In the Ancient Middle East an iron dagger was a gift fit for a king. (in the late Bronze age)
You are correct.
Though there are different ways to extract iron, and this can't possibly be the easiest one..
@@_heliks Much of the first work is thought to use meteoritic iron.
Very cool
Thanks!
Det var intressant! Tack ska ni ha!
Takk fra vår side ihvertfall, tipper også Storkekkøya Jernbrennarlag også setter pris på trivelig tilbakemelding :)
Super interessant
Tusen takk!
Lite damer i gjengen :)
Vanskelig å være uenig i den påstanden! Men det var en dame med å filmet og redigerte denne produksjonen :)
Gøy!
Hadde vært moro å se noe ferdig laget av jernet, kniv, øks eller liknende
Takk fra vår side ihvertfall, tipper også Storkekkøya Jernbrennarlag også setter pris på trivelig tilbakemelding :)
Hvis du drar til Budalen på sommeren bruker de faktisk å smi litt av det jernet de lager
Hei! Veldig spennende film! Jeg ser dere tilsetter borax, og lurer på om det finnes i Norge? Eventuelt hvordan får man tak i det? Jeg er på utkikk etter borax til bruk i keramikk.
Nei, beklager. Du kan alternativt ta kontakt med Budalen jernblestringslag eller en smed :)
@@_heliks Takk for svar!
I like learning new things.
We all do! Thanks for the comment :)
Det är finare att se hårt arbete än hur industrialisering kan förstöra kunskap, till skillnad från Sverige är Norge fortfarande ett unikum, sträck på er för bövelen nordbor, eder genuinitet kommer bidra till och vara en viktig nyckel för fortsatt överlevnad. Helt underbar video!
Tusen takk, selv om kommentaren i all hovedsak retter seg mot de fantastiske folkene i gjengen i Budalen som klarer å holde denne kunnskapen i hevd :)
this is very interesting.
Fantastisk at gutta fra Budal (og sikker noen jenter) står bak denne videoen. Sier mye om "stå på vilje" / evne til å tenke muligheter. Noen kaller det innovasjon.. Også betydelig innslag av humor!! Budal må besøkes, ikke bare Hauka som til nå. Knut (metallurg..!)
Takk fra vår side ihvertfall, tipper også Storkekkøya Jernbrennarlag også setter pris på trivelig tilbakemelding :)
Du verden. En kan lure på hvor mange hundre år det gikk med prøving og feiling, før en fant ut hvordan dette skulle gjøres.
Vanskelig å si. Det har vært produsert jern fra myrmalm i Skandinavia i over 2000 år, kanskje til og med så lenge som 3000. Det er ikke så mange i live i dag som husker så langt tilbake. 😉
Men en ting vi vet, er at jern ble produsert i over tusen år før det vi regner som jernalderen, så det er vel rimelig å regne det som en prøve-og-feile-periode før de fant ut hvordan man kan produsere jern i såpass store mengder at det blir et praktisk anvendelig materiale.
I grove trekk, slik ble gjort under vikingtiden og ?
Det er meget sannsynlig ettersom prosessen i dette området har vært brukt siden før år 0.
turn on captions for this vid!
Yes, that would be wise if you're not familiar with norwegian in this particular dialect :)
This is about as exciting as watching paint dry…
Since you made time to comment we would like to thank you by recommending this gem: ruclips.net/video/PLOPygVcaVE/видео.html
Seems very similar to the way some Japanese make tamahagane or however you spell it. Another close cousin would probably be wootz steel.
Interesting, you might be correct. We don't know :)
Brillliant. Coke to Ore ratio in a Cupola, is about 4 of Ore to 1 of Coke. ( by Weight)
Fantastiskt att denna gamla fina kunskap ännu bevaras när så mycket annat tyvärr försvunnit
Takk fra vår side ihvertfall, tipper også Storkekkøya Jernbrennarlag også setter pris på trivelig tilbakemelding :)
Bog iron is produced when pure dissolved iron encounters oxygen, and the iron hydroxide precipitates out. Iron accumulating bacteria grow in these bogs, and their enzymes are responsible for some of the iron chemistry, as well as the oily sheen.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Richard :)
Very interesting
1:13 "It is not possible to observe this on plants or vegetation." "You can only see black color right where it flows out." "You have to find the ore to see the difference in color on plants, then it generally has a brown color to it." ---- So, is it possible to find ore by observing plants or not?
7:55 Why it is important to get the same distance from the center to the ore, as well as from the ore to the stone edge?
And is there an english translation of this book?
We understand the confussion. But he meant the general vegetation of the area, which is not affected. But there is some discoloration at the excact place were it seeps out.
very interesting
Thank you
Hei. Har dere lest boka til Sveinug Gihle Raddum; Norge under Roma?
Heisann!
Nei, den har vi ikke lest. Er det mye interessant om jernblestring der?
@@_heliks Om det er! Gihle Raddum er utdannet metallurg og skriver om hvordan Romerrriket for ca 2000 år siden fant jernmalm i myrene i Norge. Etter at stål og jern barrer ikke lenger kunne importeres fra Kina overførte de slaver og teknikk til Norge. Dette etter at andre hadde utforsket mulighetene i Norge tidligere. Han skriver også om folkevandringene over hele det Eurasiske kontinent og hvordan kineserne fant måten å utvikle stål. Det fører for langt å gå inn i detaljene her, men om bare halvparten av hva han skriver må vi revidere Norges tidlige historie. Boken anbefales på det varmeste!. PS! Jeg tror muligens forfatteren er død da han angivelig led av alvorlig sykdom.
Het is leuk om te bemerken dat het Noorse woord voor "staal" ook gewoon "staal" is. Dat is waarschijnlijk de reden dat "Hoge Noren" ook van staal worden gemaakt.
A lot of german in the norwegian language :)
@@_heliks Dit's nederlands. Ik ben vlaams-talig.
This looks like a similar rpocess and product as the Japanese Tamahagane?.. I'm no expert, just what I (think) I see. So interesting anyway. Subbed here!
You might be right! We are not experts in japanese smithing
@@_heliks The Japanese had to stretch quality steel a long way, so add it as an edge quite late on in the tooling process. That being said, an expense-no-object katana was damascened, until they learned the Bessemer process. Chisels are still made old-school, because they have to resist blows.
At the end they say wrought iron is usually made in two steps, but here, they do it in one step, also, early in the video you see they taste the iron ore to ensure there is no sand in it, while Tamahagane is made from sand, so there must be some different thinking at least, no expert either
All the steps had to be figured out by someone.. think of all the trials and errors before the process was perfected .. who thought of digging up soil around oily patches of water to find iron ore ...
We assume they had a lot of time on there hands. This was before youtube :D
@Heliks AS hahaha true true 🤣🤣🤣
And acquired knowledge transmitted by mouth for hundreds of years, perhaps thousands of years, as with a lot of other type of knowledge, people teach each other over generations
try that here in the Iron Range of Minnesota
More iron in the bogs of Minnesota?
And you Use a Magnet, which one is called Magnesson.
Magnet?
Well, the descendants of Magnus Erlendsson are not Magnessons. I'm one.
@Rahere it's a bad joke.. magnets.. 'magnetsson'. just missed ot the t..
@@timhull8664 Yes, that was kind of obvious, but every joke sets up a contrast to reality, and that one had another below the obvious which I could leverage to my own agenda.
Science didn't suddenly spring up fully-armed like Cadmus' dragonsteeth in the middle of 17th Century. In fact, Isaac Newton wrote twice as much on the subject as he did on physics! Whether three-crop rotation or basic metallurgy, the empirical was miles ahead of the liminatory, which in 1618 was four-element Paracelsianism. This was refuted in van Helmont's 1618 experiment (if you don't know what that was, look it up, the most astonishing experimental write-up of all time), forcing him to restart using empirical observation for the first time. The fruit of his celebration of new-found wealth, Franz Mercurius van Helmont, became Leibnitz' mentor.
In researching Brussels' unique claims in the subject (it's the only place it's reported to have worked repeatedly, with documentary corroboration), and with the strong suspicion they had an electric generator to hand (correct, two hundred years before Faraday: there is one, and only one, documented 3500 years ago), this was one of a fistful of corroboration data points supporting the hypothesis - well, it's kind of obvious if you think. I'm doing it this way because outright claims violate a norm which has no solid foundation in fact.
@Rahere my family history is feudal, we worked the land, were totally impoverished, and working with iron was way above our pay grade.. thanks for the input..
First time in years I’ve encountered a Norwegian dialect I can’t easily understand!
(I am Danish.)
It's a lot of dialect.....
Same here.
Not to put anyone's safety at risk, but with this many men and that much fire around, I would think beer would part of the recipe. jus' sayin' is all...
You're probably right!
They seem like a rowdy bunch? Lol
Rowdy? I must have a wrong perception of that word.. :)
hvorfor er alle komentarene på engelsk???
Fordi de som har kommentert har valgt å skrive sine kommentarer på engelsk. Vi antar fordi det er deres morsmål, uten at vi kan være 100% sikre på det.
@@_heliks ååååjaaaaaaaa
Det hadde jeg ikke tenkt på
😎🤩👌
Tusen takk!
Ikke rart jern var luksus på den tiden, 4-5 mann bruker dagevis på å lage en halvkilo jern!
Helt korrekt!
Manpower was not a luxury though..
Depends I guess, always thought Norway was pretty underpopulated back then, but you are right, unskilled labour at least, was probably not a problem
@@oletorbenutstrand7959 It very much depends on when back then is.. what period. Might have been said in the video but if so i missed it. Norway for obvious reasons couldn't support a population like Denmark or Sweden.
Today 15 men can produce 500 tons of iron per month, using natural gas to smelt and forge.
Seems a little like cheating compared to this..
Them Norwegians, they are an enthusiastic people…
We truly are!
I've watched many attempts at creating quality blooms using ancient techniques. Most have failed. Should have done their homework more diligently.
It's not for everyone, takes a lot of hard work. But the iron here is actually possible to use.
Iron Age never died
Certainly being kept alive in Budalen, Norway :)
Their remote ancestors would be utterly perplexed. When you can just go BUY far superior iron any time and as much as you like . . . why do all that work ?.
"Leisure" and "Entertainment" we would answer. And they would not understand.
And also keeping the knowledge alive and being able to teach it to later generations :)
I don’t really understand why this is done. There’s really zero chance that we will ever lose the ability to extract iron from the ground. Iron is the most common element on the earth.
If you followed the explanation, if there is sand mixed in with it, you will not get forgeable iron.
This is a museum, having a theoretical understanding is not enough in a post apocalyptic world where you lose your heavy industry that extracts pure malm from rock and forge it with electricity.
All it takes is an intense solar storm and electricity is over, or in the worst case WW3 with high atmospheric nuclear detonations for the purpose of producing EMP for the same effect.
Also, you can NOT reprocess iron into fine goods such as surgical steel etc, you need virgin iron for that process. (with few exceptions).
I have read that early men threw iron ore into the fire for 300,000 years before they ever got iron: they were going for red and yellow pigments for body paints and colors for pots and magical paintings. I think it might take a long time to "remember" the process again. Good thing these guys are keeping track of the process!
I almost made it to the end ... But For a guy that brags about his 'family' and '30 years' ... 'experience' ... while arrogantly 'shutting down' his two elders who, probably, have been doing it longer than that !!! What a Narcissist !!!
There might be some imperfections in the translation and editing there. There's no shutting down of anyone :)
Why he mix Jesus into this? Theres no indication that Jesus was crucified, but rather impaled. Historical facts gives no clue to crucifixion, while impalement was used throughout the old world for several millennia.
History is a little fuzzy on the whole existence of Jesus in the first place, so we let it slide.
There's a school of eucharistic alchemy behind early chymistry. Just consider the Escorial, I suspect they were using the only pre-Faraday electric source.
IS THE WATER POTABLE?, AS AN IRON TONIC?, IS THE OIL FROM THE IRON?.
This is PURE guesswork from someone who doesn't know much:
I would guess you'd be fine after a 1 or 2 Iron tonics. Any more isn't advisable, can't be good having that much iron rooting around your system :)
The oil is produced by bacteria that naturally grow in iron bogs, they metabolize iron and produce the oily sheen. The oily sheen is an indicator of a rich bog iron deposit.
One should realize, the development of this process is what became that period we call “ The Iron Age” . But imagine how many years-decades-centuries of trial and error it took just to get to the stage we see demonstrated here. That you all for sharing, I salute you all……..🫡
This was before youtube, so there wasn't anything else to do than trying different ways of drying bogs :D
In England we call it Iron Water.
That makes sense, thanks for sharing!
Cool
Thanks!