We have watched and participated in a number of other iron smelts over the years, with variable results.
So John Adams and I eagerly jumped on the chance to learn more about smelting iron by watching Lee Sauder and his team
in action at
the 2012 ABANA conference in Rapid City, SD.
Lee provides complete instructions for smelting iron ore to iron on his website and also offers a very helpful DVD.
John took advantage of both of these resources.
When John and I got home from Rapid City, we (mostly John) began preparing for a smelt down at Tunnel Mill.
He rounded up all the needed materials
and got a team together to run the smelt during the annual early October Tunnel Mill Fall Gathering.
I made a couple of furnace forms following the directions from Lee Sauder:
The OD of the FORM is about 10 1/2 inches at the bottom and about 10 inches at the top.
The form is about 4 feet tall, but the finished furnace will only be about 38" tall. It will be totally burned away during the curing of the
furnace.
