Brett Onnink of Burning Sky Forge experiments with some awesome alloy recipes to create beautifully pure blade steels with the Coal Iron Works 25kW Induction Forge!
I had this process in mind for a long time. Since I couldn't really find anyone doing it, I assumed there's a snag. Now this is great, I can finally convince myself to get one of those induction heaters. Thank you so much, for sharing your technique.
altho keeping in the liquid phase for 10-20 min is ok, to properly form a dendrite structure, wootz vs just a piece of steel, it has to cool down slowly for about 12 to 24 hours.
After a great conversation with Jin at @wootzmilitaria I have decided to build a small chamber from refractory - the size of the crucible - with the coils cast into it. Our thinking there is we need more thermal mass to slow the cooling phase down to form the dendritic structure.
For real Wootz I seem to recall that the secret ingredient was either a piece of previous Wootz steel, or some magnetite. Also, would have been great to see how the steels turned out in the end.
@@buny1p967ideally yes. Vanadium is one of the strongest Carbide Forming Elements and was vital to pattern forming. However- at the time of this demo the only CFE we had on hand was Titanium (also a CFE just not commonly used).
Silly question here, but im curious, are induction forges to be used strictly for iron based alloys or could it be used with other metals? or just ferromagnetic metals only?
From memory - with non-ferrous metals a crucible is needed that interacts with the electric field. So in that case, it's the crucible heating the metal. The induction furnaces sold online for smelting come with both. Sadly I can't find the explanation now that I saw a while ago. In the ebay ads it's white (quartz?) and a black (clay graphite) one. For non-ferrous you'd have to use both together. One fits in the other.
Not a problem at all, hope my comment didn't come across as being a know it all. I've done all kinds of this stuff and if there's anything I can do to help out, I'd be more than happy to.
Now that's freakin awesome
Are we going to be seeing an induction forge and wootz blades in the near future for your channel now.
I had this process in mind for a long time. Since I couldn't really find anyone doing it, I assumed there's a snag. Now this is great, I can finally convince myself to get one of those induction heaters. Thank you so much, for sharing your technique.
This is incredibly cool. I had no idea you could make Wootz with an induction furnace. Well done!
This is freaking awesome!!!!
Been doing this since December with a 15kW (350g ingots). I use a small C-clamp on the pedal instead of a heavy weight. Nice demonstration!
What kind of materials are you using for the feeder material?
Great job Brett !
This is awesome!!!!!
This is awesome content! Keep it up fellas!
Use the green button instead of the pedal
altho keeping in the liquid phase for 10-20 min is ok, to properly form a dendrite structure, wootz vs just a piece of steel, it has to cool down slowly for about 12 to 24 hours.
After a great conversation with Jin at @wootzmilitaria I have decided to build a small chamber from refractory - the size of the crucible - with the coils cast into it. Our thinking there is we need more thermal mass to slow the cooling phase down to form the dendritic structure.
Gotta have some Vanadium in there for good patterning :)
You don't need vanadium, you just need a carbide forming element, which he has in this
Man if i had one of those id be making crucible steel out of EVERYTHING!
Easily done. However I strongly suggest spending some time learning about Crucible steel and wootz. It is a very deep rabbit hole.
@@burningsky8372 I've watched a lot of videos about it but that's about the only thing I have found that isn't referring to an industrial process
When will we see the finished blade ?
Follow @burningskyforge on instagram to follow along with the project!
For real Wootz I seem to recall that the secret ingredient was either a piece of previous Wootz steel, or some magnetite. Also, would have been great to see how the steels turned out in the end.
I thought it was the presence of the trace element of vanadium to get that beautiful grain structure
@@buny1p967ideally yes. Vanadium is one of the strongest Carbide Forming Elements and was vital to pattern forming. However- at the time of this demo the only CFE we had on hand was Titanium (also a CFE just not commonly used).
This is really cool, Thanks.
Good Point, You No Longer Need Coal to Make Steel.
I wonder how much carbon was added to your mix from that graphite crucible itself.
Silly question here, but im curious, are induction forges to be used strictly for iron based alloys or could it be used with other metals? or just ferromagnetic metals only?
From memory - with non-ferrous metals a crucible is needed that interacts with the electric field. So in that case, it's the crucible heating the metal. The induction furnaces sold online for smelting come with both. Sadly I can't find the explanation now that I saw a while ago. In the ebay ads it's white (quartz?) and a black (clay graphite) one. For non-ferrous you'd have to use both together. One fits in the other.
Why not use the built in timer instead of rigging the pedal?
The timer only goes for so long- so we'd have to keep resetting it if we were to go that route.
Not to be a nerd, but you are melting, not smelting. Smelting is a chemical process of reducing an ore to a metal
Very much welcoming of nerds here, we appreciate the correction- we're kind of new to the space :)
Not a problem at all, hope my comment didn't come across as being a know it all. I've done all kinds of this stuff and if there's anything I can do to help out, I'd be more than happy to.
Would this process work with the Coal Iron 15kW?
15KW should be enough to make steel molten, just may take a little time
This should work. You may have to adjust the charge size and/or time parameters.
This is awesome!!!