Copper Smelting & Bronze Casting at the Great Orme Copper Mines
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- čas přidán 28. 09. 2021
- The Great Orme Copper mine is one of the most well-known prehistoric mines in Europe. It saw activity from 3900-2900 years ago right through the Bronze Age. At its height, copper from the mine was used to make tools such as axe heads which have been found across western Europe.
Dr. James Dilley demonstrates and talks through the highlights of the copper smelting and bronze casting process to make a type I shield pattern Palstave axe head from the Acton Park phase (when the mines were most active).
Filmed Edited & Produced by Emma Jones of ELWJ Media - www.elwjmedia.co.uk
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Check out the mines here: www.greatormemines.info/
I don't think majority of the people can appreciate just hard this process is. You need enough fuel and air. Your air flow isn't strong enough? You will find that out after 20 minutes of laborious work. Not enough fuel? Too bad all your work was in vain. Good air and fuel supply but the metal just doesn't melt? Your furnace design might be flawed. Start again. At this point you might want to make a new crucible as well because you have already used it few times and you don't want it to crack when everything else goes right. Now that you have melted your bronze you better make sure your mold is absolutely dry or else the molten fire will spit everywhere. And when you finally made it despite all the hardships you get to practice pouring the metal so that it fills the mold without sets. Steady now... Darn. It's a failed cast. Try again.
Couldn’t have put it better myself!
It's amazing how they never gave up despite all those setbacks! Now that's what I call patience!!!
Seeing that axe head coming out of the mold is hypnotic. Our ancestors must have looked in amazement at the same thing
I cant believe these videos dont have 10x the views they have. Amazing work, and the reenactments are so cool
lovely looking wooden bucket
so the guy who invented the bag ballows must have been a genius
someone playing with processed livestock stomach
ya I imagine somebody wouldve made the connection between blowing air on a fire and hides blowing up with air when folding up your kit
Really looking forward to this, gutted couldn't come at last minute due to Covid, but hope volunteer who took my place had a great time! Catch you next time Pete Wood
Excellent video to learn about metal smelting.
Damn the depth of research required to get a dialogue that nuanced and punchy is so impressive. Even more incredible that so much wasnt explicitly recorded; this makes period accurate recreations essential capstones to this research.
Aside from testing hypotheses, demos like this bring the information to life, fostering public awareness and appreciation of the topic.
Dirty hands and clean editing, big ups to you and your team.
Thanks Jacob! It’s just my partner and I who make the videos, but we very much put quality over quantity. It’s not the way YT wants channels to work, but it’s our way.
Excellent video! I noticed two repeats of the same sentence in the narration.
I was ready to trolling for "prehistoric" methods because %99,99 times they use modern things and call it "ancient" methods. Thank you for NO clickbait!
It was an excellent day. I hope my incessant questions weren't too annoying. Hope to see you again soon.
I can only be amazed at the time and inventiveness which resulted in this process. Thank you, Dr .Dilley and team
Thank you!
Can't wait for the next one, we've really been enjoying your videos, we are making our way though all the others
😊😊
Excellent video, keep up the good work.
oh my god..
this is wonderful!
thankyou 🙂
Quality video and content as usual James, well done
I wish I could like this twice. Very good video!
Thank you!
Great video, I took a look at your channel and instantly subscribed! Looking forward to the next videos!
Fantastic work!
Thanks David!
I confess. Ever since I saw this man in an English heritage video knapping an axe, I have intermittently sought him out on CZcams to see what he’s up to.
Amazing.
Great channel and an excellent video, really looking forward to getting my replica Palstave from you.
Thanks Stuart! Your Palstave was packed this afternoon and will be in the post and with you soon!
Many thanks@@ancientcraftUK
Love the attention about the tongs.
Of the crucible, do they not ever have a spout even if its crude? And I suppose something organic could be used to bind the mould. Bone spacers/wedges to keep the fiber chord binding from direct contact with the hot mould?
Wow!
I want to know the discovery process they went through. Who first fired rocks ? etc
discovering the ore...?
Cn I ask about the exact recipe for clay used here?
Id like to have a go at bronze casting with ancient methods, but I dont know the first thing about making vessels capable of withstanding such temperatures...
Did you Make your crucible or did you use modern one
Me and my son will try to melt copper and tin to produce bronze and cast an axe. However, i wondered if you could tell me what you use as a material for the moulds.
How much wood was needed to cast the axe head? I read in A Forest Journey that the Forest of Dean was pretty much stripped bare for iron smelting, and Cyprus experienced the same in the bronze age.
Good work james thanks for you and your teams hard work😊 could we get a follow up to see how well the axe works?🙃🙃
Of course! #Knaptime will be next then probably tool use
lol
nap time 🙂 😉
I don't know about charcoal,but using oak to smelt metal achieves a higher temperature than other woods,also it is possible ancient people used pitch and coal
What are the bag bellows made of and how are they connected to the forge?
does it look like a sort of channel running from the bellows to the fire? but covered over with a run of dirt?
That was very interesting! Well made piece!
Could you clear something up for me? I saw a reference to the palstave axe being actually a digging tool, and that since it was first described as an axe, it retained that name. Do you know if this is true-- that they were digging tools? If so, it seems likely that most of the hafted replicas have not been correctly hafted, as if it was a digging tool-- it should be hafted with the blade rotated 90 degrees, like a hoe or adze.
Hi Ian, the name “palstave” came from a Danish name for a prehistoric tool a “palstuber” (or similar), which is a digging tool. Palstave axes/adzes were most certainly woodworking tools and are very effective in this field
@@ancientcraftUK Thank you, so much for the informative reply!
excellent. Thank you so much. I have bronze pieces , but it is not TIN bronze
Aluminum?
"Hi, I'm James, I'm into rock and metal."
"Really? Are you singer, guitarist, drummer?"
"No, I'm flint knapper and bronze caster."
Yes, it's not good joke, but I had to make it =)
You should read the “about me” section on the website!
@@ancientcraftUK I should do that before, maybe I wouldn't emberrass myself with bad jokes =D
I do love me some nap time.
They certainly wouldn't have used soft iron binding wire to hold their mounds together (sorry for being pedantic). Has anyone considered that they might have used carved steatite (soapstone) mounds? Soapstone is very easy to carve and will withstand many repeat castings with very little deterioration; I have used it myself for casting silver (similar melting point to bronze). I have no idea of the availability of soapstone in Britain during the Bronze Age, but if it was easily found they would have been aware of it I guess.
You’re right they wouldn’t have used iron wire, but I used copper wire in the vid and on moulds in general. Soapstone was used, but doesn’t occur is good enough quality over a wide area, which appears to have restricted its wider use
Really ? Thouse ppl built the piramides and ...this is all we know so far?
Appreciate the information but the axe making is obviously staged
No offense intended, but your narrative could bear a bit closer review to edit out redundant phrasing. Good overall video quality requires the audio to be comparable...
Is it just me or is this guy repeating himself
teaching?