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Experiments to reconstruct an Early Christian handbell are currently in progress, based on a site within St Fagans in the churchyard of the church of St Teilo for our brazing experiments and in the smithy for Andrew Murphy's work on forging the bell.
Brazing experiments being undertaken near the church of St Teilo
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Smelting experiments are trying to reconstruct the methods of operating a large slag-tapping furnace. The furnace is seen here in an early form, in June 1998. |
A programme of experimental work has been undertaken, based in the National History Museum, St Fagans, near Cardiff (a branch of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales). The experiments were conducted in a workshop adjacent to the Celtic Village. The experiments were run on an occasional basis from 1998 to 2004. The programme was designed to investigate the smelting, in a large slag-tapping bloomery furnace, of oxide iron ores, of the kinds exploited in the region in early times. The furnace was a reconstruction of what is believed to be the typical type of furnace used in the area throughout the first millenium AD.
The smelting experiments are currently "on-hold" while a new site within the museum is found. A programme of tidying-up the museum has meant that we have lost our previous site; the infamous red tarpulin was finally deemed too unsightly! We do not know at present when the restart of the experiments will be possible.
In the meantime however, we have undertaken two smelts away from Cardiff - one for the Four Parishes Heritage Group (smelt 28) and one at the UCL Primtech event (smelt 29).
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The furnace has been left uncovered since its last use in March 2004; its fate is being monitored and forms a part of the experiment. By December 2005 the blowing wall was still fairly intact, but much of the rest has collapsed. |
iron making: | to be announced |
charcoal burning: | to be announced |
1998 smelting campaign
1999 smelting campaign and 1999 charcoal burning
2000 smelting campaign
No smelting was undertaken in 2001 following storm damage to the structure
2002 smelting campaign
2003 smelting campaign
2004 smelting campaign
2007 smelting campaign
List of all smelting experiments with their operating parameters.
Description of the operation of a bloomery furnace.
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Slag flowing from the furnace. Such tapped slags are often the dominant residue on early smelting sites |
This research has only been possible through the hard work of many people, to whom I owe great thanks