Smelting Bog Ore As It Should Be Done

A video documents an Irish bloomery iron smelting weekend where Alec Steele joined Irish Bloomery Iron to smelt bog ore using a medieval-style blast furnace. The setup, including a perforated clay air injection plate creating a venturi effect and the furnace shape, is compared favorably to a 2019 Dutch hackerspace attempt at Hack42 that produced mostly slag. Unlike the Dutch tapping method, the Irish bloom is lifted out through the furnace top and then worked into a usable iron bar.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/09/23/smelting-bog-ore-as-it-should-be-done. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.