I have collected over 100 kilos of Bog Iron. I live in SW Lancashire and the area was once the largest lowland peat bog in England. Vikings would not have climbed mountains to harvest it, they got it from lowland bogs.
...most use of iron would have had nothing to do with war or weapons. Plough heads, chopping axes, hammer heads, nails, saws, chisels, work knives, shovels, pots and pans and kettles, horseshoes...
Iron is made into steel which steel is used for most weapons/tools/armor. It's steel, but to make steel you need iron. So yeah, iron was crucial for that stuff.
Shovels could be wooden (use fire to make it hard), and so could nails (just make them pegs instead; used in the high middle ages). Pots could be made of clay, as they had been for thousands of years before the period, and saws weren't needed if you had a hewing axe and a maul and wedges (maul and wedges could be wooden); although a saw would be faster for fine cutting, it wasn't necessary. What do you need a chisel for? Wood workers were likely patient enough to just attack something with a knife instead of chisel it, and stone work wasn't as common as it would be later on. Plough heads were wooden, I believe (the iron plough came later). Anglo saxons didn't use a lot of cavalry, so maybe horse shoes weren't as common as among the franks, say. Hammers could be clubs too, but smith's hammers would probably be iron. Most things were actually wooden rather than iron. The only things that really needed to be iron were smithing hammers, axes and knives. The norse used iron clinch nails in their long boats, but that's more of a unique design feature, since they didn't rust (apparently).
@@mr.mayhem2345 Yes, but historically steel was just called iron a lot of the time. They didn't really specify too much until much later in history, when steel was really a mastered material with advanced tempering and quenching techniques
@dogbone222 look for bogs and marshes to begin with, and if theres a stream or brook that feeds it that comes down from the mountains all the better. Thats really your best bet - maybe look to see if there was ever any bog iron industries in the area to aide in your looking. Good luck!
+MN-14 ' I know there is Iron mine from Iran around 1800-1200 BC, also same in India, maybe there are earlier. On copper mines i know there is one very old, like 5000 bc dated, in the Israel.
Why would you characterise a very productive, useful job akin to gold prospecting as thankless and dirty? One would expect bog ore to be plentiful and relatively easy to find in the first eras. The rewards were great and the finders often much appreciated. The alternative was tilling and planting in all weathers..
The groundwater would have a lot of iron inside of it in the form of iron oxide, and after heavy rainfall and then dry periods, the iron oxide would clump together and look sort of clay-brown on the surface of the swamp with the peat holding some iron ore in them. The reason this is is because there's a mixture of acidity in the swamp with low oxygen, and anaerobic bacteria make a sort of film over the top of the bog, using the iron and low oxygen levels to live, which is how you can detect it. Wait a couple decades and you basically have a renewable resource of iron in the swamp.
@dogbone222 Incorrect, bog iron is generally not useful for cast iron, but its perfect for wrought iron, which is what they wanted for swords and axes.
fun fact: this is technically renewable; mine bog iron, leave the site alone for a few decades, and new nodules will have formed
decades ? try longer much longer oil is "renewable" just wait 100s of millions of years.
@@xelthiavice4276 this iron comes from bacteria. Although petroleum also come from bacteria 😅
@@ItzDonner oil came from ancient marine organisms such as plants algae plankton. 100s of millions of year ago 😅
@@xelthiavice4276 so you're telling me. In that clusterfuck of living beings there was no bacteria? There were dinosaurs but no bacteria?
I have collected over 100 kilos of Bog Iron. I live in SW Lancashire and the area was once the largest lowland peat bog in England. Vikings would not have climbed mountains to harvest it, they got it from lowland bogs.
how much ore one can harvest in a day?
@@Judge_Mike A little late, but at the start of the video they said 30-40 kilo's of ore per day.
@@survivinggamer2598 i've found a 18 century source it said about ~750 kg per worker in a day, with several workers and a horse cart
@@Judge_Mike Interesting, thank you!
Always great to hear Tony teaching about something! This is exactly the info i needed.
The Primitive Technology channel brought me here. I had never heard of this.
...most use of iron would have had nothing to do with war or weapons.
Plough heads, chopping axes, hammer heads, nails, saws, chisels, work knives, shovels, pots and pans and kettles, horseshoes...
Iron is made into steel which steel is used for most weapons/tools/armor. It's steel, but to make steel you need iron. So yeah, iron was crucial for that stuff.
Shovels could be wooden (use fire to make it hard), and so could nails (just make them pegs instead; used in the high middle ages). Pots could be made of clay, as they had been for thousands of years before the period, and saws weren't needed if you had a hewing axe and a maul and wedges (maul and wedges could be wooden); although a saw would be faster for fine cutting, it wasn't necessary. What do you need a chisel for? Wood workers were likely patient enough to just attack something with a knife instead of chisel it, and stone work wasn't as common as it would be later on. Plough heads were wooden, I believe (the iron plough came later). Anglo saxons didn't use a lot of cavalry, so maybe horse shoes weren't as common as among the franks, say. Hammers could be clubs too, but smith's hammers would probably be iron.
Most things were actually wooden rather than iron. The only things that really needed to be iron were smithing hammers, axes and knives. The norse used iron clinch nails in their long boats, but that's more of a unique design feature, since they didn't rust (apparently).
@@mr.mayhem2345 Yes, but historically steel was just called iron a lot of the time. They didn't really specify too much until much later in history, when steel was really a mastered material with advanced tempering and quenching techniques
I believe using a modern day metal detector greatly ease the search for Bogs.
Iron ore wouldn't show up on a metal detector
@@loucooper2870 the hell it wont!
The nails and bolts that the Vikings used were made of bog iron, which made them resistant to rusting.
@dogbone222 look for bogs and marshes to begin with, and if theres a stream or brook that feeds it that comes down from the mountains all the better. Thats really your best bet - maybe look to see if there was ever any bog iron industries in the area to aide in your looking. Good luck!
Funny cause even though we get paid money now. Most of us still work to live
Rob Ingram I agree with you. However, I wouldn't say "nothing more, nothing less" that depends on which soap box your standing on.
Does anyone here know how to go find bog ore? Is this in every bog or swamp or is it only in a particular kind? Any info would be helpful.
Probably not in swamps like in New York, but maybe in Pennsylvania near the Anthracite mines. England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland? Sure.
Look for what looks like some oil drops on top of water in swamps, it's a telltale sign of it. Once you know what to look for, it's pretty common.
red water on top
I imagine this is where the word booger came from
I want to make my own knife out of iron I pull out of a Bog.
My grandfather found a big piece of bog iron logging here in MA
Wonder when the first iron mining operation was established? Y'know, with pickaxes and such; the kind you see in RTS games
lol
hallerd What? I'm just asking when they stopped bog searching and start excavating.
I thought the RTS imagery was funny.
hallerd Oh. Yeah, I thought most people would get it.
+MN-14 '
I know there is Iron mine from Iran around 1800-1200 BC, also same in India, maybe there are earlier. On copper mines i know there is one very old, like 5000 bc dated, in the Israel.
Why would you characterise a very productive, useful job akin to gold prospecting as thankless and dirty?
One would expect bog ore to be plentiful and relatively easy to find in the first eras. The rewards were great and the finders often much appreciated. The alternative was tilling and planting in all weathers..
bog-ore = booger
?
or bugger.
Why would such a large amount of iron ore form under a bog? And where did the iron come from? I need answers!
The groundwater would have a lot of iron inside of it in the form of iron oxide, and after heavy rainfall and then dry periods, the iron oxide would clump together and look sort of clay-brown on the surface of the swamp with the peat holding some iron ore in them.
The reason this is is because there's a mixture of acidity in the swamp with low oxygen, and anaerobic bacteria make a sort of film over the top of the bog, using the iron and low oxygen levels to live, which is how you can detect it.
Wait a couple decades and you basically have a renewable resource of iron in the swamp.
Think of it this way. Have you ever heard that Spinach has iron in it?
what's the name of the full documentary? quite interesting.
ruclips.net/video/7jgu7EJ9A8A/видео.html
I thought bog Iron wasn't as reliable as others
They just don't know what real work is.
@dogbone222 Incorrect, bog iron is generally not useful for cast iron, but its perfect for wrought iron, which is what they wanted for swords and axes.
thanks, i will check it out =)
@zappbrannigan420 really? Where would i find bog iron in texas. ya know in the rural areas
which show is this?
ruclips.net/video/7jgu7EJ9A8A/видео.html
Where is the rest of the story? As this is clearly a clipping, of just one part of a much bigger story. Why not just post the whole thing?
I would guess it's time team
Korg Iron
looks like big Iron pyrite nodules
@zappbrannigan420 danke schon