Primitive Skills: Iron knife created from micro organism
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Iron knife made from bacteria
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About This Video:
I smelted iron from iron bacteria and then cast the iron in a mold to form a rudimentary knife, making this the first iron tool I"ve produced yet. The ore was a species of bacteria that lives by oxidizing iron dissolved in ground water. It appears as an orange/yellow cloudy precipitate in creeks and ponds. It"s a very common natural occurrence and can be found on all continents. I collected the diluted ore and poured it into a large, porous ceramic pot I made. The water leaked out, leaving behind the concentrated iron bacteria "mud" like substance. I dried it out until it resembled rusty earth. It took a month to collect the ore for one 2 hour smelt, from a stretch of creek about 20 meters long.
Charcoal was then made simply by burning a pile of wood in a small pit and then extinguishing it with just enough water once it had visibly carbonized. It was quicker to make than the charcoal I normally make in a mound (1hr vs 2.5hrs) and took less preparation time making than the mound from mud. A small furnace was made and the multiblade blower (made in the last episode) was attached to it for air supply.
The furnace was preheated for an hour with wood and filled with charcoal at the end, using the blower periodically but not full blast. Then over the next hour, 3 double handfuls of charcoal (about 500g) and 2 single handfuls or ore (about 200g) were added every 5 minutes while blowing air into the furnace to burn it at this rate. Then there was a 30 min burn down still using the blower till the charcoal reached the level of the air entry. The total operation took 2 hrs. A lump of slag was taken from the furnace and broken up. Iron prills up to about 1 cm in diameter were retrieved. For the sake of experiment I weighed the iron produced on modern scales= 40g iron from an estimated 1.2 kg of ore. Even though this is a low yield by modern standards it is a marked improvement over my previous smelts that produced much smaller and fewer prills over all. I did another smelt that almost exactly reproduced this result (80g of iron stored). The increase in efficiency is due to the much better blower design (8 blades vs the original 4).
Next I cast the iron in a mold. The melting point of pure metalic iron is 1538 C. However, the iron prills I produced are cast iron, an alloy of iron and carbon where carbon is about 2-4% by weight. Cast iron has a relatively tepid melting point of 1150 C. Such a temperature is easily attainable in an open hearth with charcoal and a forced air supply. So, I put the prills into a triangular clay mold and put it into a simple pit forge that took very little time to make. Importantly, I made a special flat air pipe that spread the incoming air into a sheet that blew over the width of the mold to heat all of it evenly, a round one would only heat the middle of the mold and not melt it completely. Charcoal was then put on top of the mold about 12.5 cm deep and the air blast started. The fire became white hot, exceeding the 1150 C needed to melt the iron. The iron melted filling the mold and the iron triangle was taken from it.
Initially, I was going to make it into an axe head, but decided it was too brittle (cast iron is actually harder than pure iron but brittle) so I sharpened it into a knife. It took many hours of sharpening to bring the end to a point. It"s not a sharp blade it works well for drilling holes in timber (like for making fire drill sockets). This represents the first iron tool I"ve made completely from scratch in the wild. Future experiments will focus on obtaining greater yields of iron, exploiting richer sources of ore and ultimately making better iron tools.
Transcription
Creek with iron bacteria in the water (orange/yellow slime). The iron bacteria derive their energy by oxidizing iron dissolved in the water. Collecting the dilute iron oxide precipitate Pouring iron precipitate into porous clay pot The water leaks out while iron oxide remains inside the pot Iron oxide "mud" is then taken from the pot to dry Dried iron oxide, the ore that will be used Stacking wood into a pit for charcoal The pile is lit from the top and allowed to burn down, carbonizing the pile.
Un-burnt brands are raked to the top to carbonize more completely When the coals have visually carbonized (turned black), they are extinguished with just enough water to do so The charcoal is then taken out and stored when cool enough to handle This method of making charcoal is quick, simple and effective Making a furnace pit (12.5 cm deep, 25 cm wide) lined with clay Tuyere (air pipe) is 12.5 cm from bottom of pit and penetrates 2.5 cm in from inner wall The furnace then extends 37.5 cm above this (50cm from bottom to top) The improved multi blade impeller from last episode Pre-heating the furnace with wood for one hour.
Filling the furnace with charcoal Adding the first charge of ore (2 single handfuls or 200 grams) After 300 pulls of the string (5 minutes) 3 double handfuls of charcoal (500 g) and 2 single handfuls of ore (200g) are added Again, 5 minutes, 500g charcoal, 200g ore. This was done 6 times over 30 minutes After the last charge, the furnace was fired for another 30 minutes until the charcoal burnt down to the level of air entry The material in the furnace was then removed and inspected The result was slag with iron prills through it There were also larger iron prills in the coals that had dripped out of the slag.
Breaking up the slag yielded more iron nuggets From 1.2kg of ore 40 g of iron was produced in 2 hours I then did another smelt that went almost exactly the same A stone mortar helps with breaking up the slag and retrieving the iron Approximately another 40 g of iron 80 grams iron in total for about 4 hours smelting Making a mold to cast the iron into It's made of clay and is a triangle shape about 10cm long and 3cm wide at the base The prills are placed into the mold and will be melted in situ rather than being poured from a crucible.
A special tuyere had to be made with a wide, flat mouth to blow a sheet of air over the entire width of the mold A simple open hearth with the flat nosed tuyere is made The mold with the iron in it is placed in the hearth, just in front of the flat nosed tuyere Hot coals and charcoal are placed on top of the mold Then the forced draft is applied The iron prills I made are actually cast iron, due to the high carbon to ore ratio used in the smelt Cast iron has a lower melting point (1150 C) than pure iron (1538 C) Because of this relatively low melting point, the iron can be melted in a simple open hearth This process took about 15 minutes at most.
Retrieving the mold Success I was going to make an axe but decided it would be too brittle, so I sharpened it into a knife Each transition here is about an hour of sharpening Though cast iron is more brittle than pure iron, it is much harder, so it takes a lot longer to sharpen. 10 hours sharpening in total Though the cutting edge is a bit blunt, the point is well suited for drilling holes in wood and carving notches (like for fire sticks) Iron knife made from bacteria
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Author: Author Link: Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhW4XFGQB4o Category: Channel Name: Primitive Technology Channel ID: 28 Tags: primitive,iron,knife,primitive technology,youtube primitive technology,primitive technology youtube,primitive technology knife,knife primitive technology,iron knife,knife iron,primitive technology iron,iron primitive technology,iron knife made from bacteria,how to make a knife,knife sharpening,knives,smelted iron,iron bacteria,iron tool,primitive tech,primitive,technology,primitive technology tool,multiblade blower,iron ore,primative technology,tool made of iron,iron tools,
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7 thoughts on “Primitive Skills: Iron knife created from micro organism”
I’d by no formula contain believed that so considerable iron could perhaps very effectively be extracted from the micro organism in a single glide. Will must were a lot of labor. Hats off to you.
Rattling I adore observing Minecraft gameplay with RTX on
YES !!!!!this turned into righteous!
Discontinuance you order you can perchance also attempt an iron axe within the long jog?
What's the powder he saved inserting on the furnace?
he made a play button
You can perhaps very effectively be a genius.