Group B Lab Data: Week 7 (Blacksmithing)

In the Week 7 lab, we learned basic blacksmithing techniques and used them to create iron nails. While this was, in many ways, more of an experiential rather than an experimental lab, I was still able to gather a limited amount of both quantitative and qualitative data.

There were two fuel variables in the lab; two groups used charcoal to fuel the fire we used to heat the iron, while three used coal. Group B (my group) was a charcoal utilizing group. In sum, we used an entire 30 pound bag of charcoal to produce 5 nails.

While I was unable to get weights for every nail we produced, I found a stand-in weight estimate. Using the length of the pictured nail and the 5/16″ required diameter of each nail, I determined an estimated nail volume and, using an average .25 pounds per cubic inch weight of iron, I estimated that we worked 1.2 pounds of iron between the five nails. This is likely an overestimate, because the pictured nail was the largest of our group; however, even with this overestimate, it took 25x more charcoal to heat the iron than the actual iron we forged by weight. I have visualized this below:

In addition, I collected a few interesting temperature readings during the lab that show both iron temperatures and the temperature of the blacksmith’s working environment:

Temperature (Celsius) of Cool, Unworked Iron	Temperature (Celsius) of Glowing, Workable Iron	Temperature (Celsius) of Glenn’s Shirt while Feeding Air to Fire
19.8°	986.4°	40.2°

Finally, in class on Friday, Professor Sarah Kennedy joined us with the Archaeology Department’s pXRF scanner, which she used to determine the elemental composition of a few objects that we worked with in a few labs. The elemental composition charts she created are below: