Marc- I have been reading about primitive iron production methods, since I have been planning to turn my chicken shack into a blacksmithing shop, I think I should take it one step further and build a small bloomery where small amounts of high grade iron ore can be turned into wrought iron. Of course this ore will have to be of the highest quality to avoid haveing to roast it so we will need to research which mines offered the best ore then go rob some pillars!

From "Echoes of Iron: I read that the early small bloomeries from eighth century spain were 3- 5 feet high and two and a half feet in diameter, something to consider. They look just like a big back yard bbq, so it should be easy to build.

One website shows a furnace shaped bloomery and suggests that it should be air tight to prevent oxidation and increase the yield of iron from the ore. Doing that would require some good enginering, and doesnt seem worth the time. So I say we waste some iron, it is free anyway.

Also I read that, while not very commonly done, cast iron can be worked back into wrought.

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If exploring mines is wrong, then baby... I don't want to be right.

some of the info I checked out on bloomerys say that finding suitable iron ore to smelt nowadays is really hard, I dont think we are going to have a problem finding some!

Your best bet for smelting your own would probably be finding the purest ore you can. An ore with the least impurities. You'd probably do best with a magnetite mine. Nearest you, if you felt like robbing pillars you could try Bull Mine. That mine didn't have a lot of inpurities from my understanding, but I don't recall any dump piles near the mine. Lots of tailings, but I'm not sure about useable ore. Highledge Mine in NJ has some pretty large dump piles of ore left at the mine. Ore from that mine averaged between 58-60% Iron...

...but the BEST ore can be found at the Mount Hope Mine. The finest ore in America. There are still some ore piles left and plenty of quality ore still underground.

Miner Mike

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"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"

In the next month I want to take our blast furnace trail trip. We will start at washington, CT and work our way up to at least simsbury at the border of CT and MA. We'll camp out somewhere up there and then make our way back down hitting more furnaces on the way. In all I expect to visit 20-22 furnaces. Now here is the hard part picking a weekend: I have three dates in mind May 20th, or 27th (weekend before memorial day) , or June 10th. I would like to run it May 20th personally, that is in two weeks. Let me know right away who is interested and what days can you guys can do, or not do?

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If exploring mines is wrong, then baby... I don't want to be right.

Marc- I can go any of those weekends! Wow 20-22 blast furnaces in one weekend, this is going to be great! I hope you have plotted them on your GPS. There are some really nice camp sites in that part of the state too! -Mike

I'm surprised there are 20 - 22 blast furnaces left in the country the rate hings are destroyed.... Wow... There are that many still around in CT / MA?

Greg

I think there are 20-22 just in CT! if you dont believe me come on the blast furnace tour it will be fun!
We may even encounter some Raggies, they are descendants of CT's original iron miners! they are like the hill billys that live in the appalacian mountains down in tennesee very shy and keep to themselves they have no electricity and still live in the old miners shanties, I know someone that knows someone who actually encountered one of them when hunting up by mt. riga. To catch a glimps of them or where they live would be fascinating but very very dangerous. -Mike

Yeah I have a list of 44 blast furnaces that around 1998 were worth visiting according to "echoes of Iron." they are all close by in NY CT and MA. So far my plan is as follows: we will visit furnaces east of the housatonic and those just around the housatonic. Camp out in N. Canaan or Salisbury area Just below MA. then travel back hitting the ones on the border of CT and NY. These are going to be long days but I think we can do it. The CT miners are go for May 20 and 21.

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If exploring mines is wrong, then baby... I don't want to be right.

Yeah I have a list of 44 blast furnaces that around 1998 were worth visiting according to "echoes of Iron." they are all close by in NY CT and MA. So far my plan is as follows: we will visit furnaces east of the housatonic and those just around the housatonic. Camp out in N. Canaan or Salisbury area Just below MA. then travel back hitting the ones on the border of CT and NY. These are going to be long days but I think we can do it. The CT miners are go for May 20 and 21.

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If exploring mines is wrong, then baby... I don't want to be right.

This weekend looks like rain, but CT miners still plan to go.

So far of the 20 furnaces listed in CT I have 14 blast furnaces that I plan to visit, these have at least some remains. Of the 14 some may be on private property and difficult to get to. If we find we are making good time we can always go just over the border into NY where a potential of 14 more furnaces are in good condition. There are other stops in town like musems and artifacts that I hope are open.

Here is the order so far if anyone is interested: Roxbury, Bull's falls, Kent, Macedonia, cornwall bridge, west cornwall, Sharon valley, Lime rock #2, Lime rock #1, Great falls, Mt. Riga, East Canaan #3, Beckley(East Canaan #2), and Forbes(East canaan #1).

3 options for camping: state forests, Appalachian Trail, or off road to a random place.

Anyone else able to go?

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If exploring mines is wrong, then baby... I don't want to be right.

We have to check out the mining museum again when we visit kent furnace, last time we were there we didnt really know anything about mines, plus there were old ore carts behind the building! ORE CARTS!

Which museum is this? Ore Cars are pretty neat, you MUST take pictures if you see them... This isn't the museum for the Fahnestock park?

No, it is called the connecticut mining museum and is on the same property as the sloane museum, which has a huge collection of fully operating steam engines, and even a working steam locamotive that you can get a ride on. The museum is great, we have not been there for years so we must see it again, they have an ore crusher that you can actually crush rocks in and artifacts from the roxbury iron mines, the guy even said he wanted to get the ore car out of the roxbury mine but it would not fit out the adit portal! they also have a model of the roxbury operations and pictures of it from back in the day. You guys should come up this weekend and check it out with us along with a ton of blast furnaces!