Multi Smelt Bar

This is a vertical slice through a billet of iron that was made from the iron of five bloomery smelts and a layer of PureIron. Each of the blooms was split with an axe, forged into a bar, folded once, and then reforged into a bar of approx. 1" wide by 3/8" thickness. The six samples were then stacked and forged welded into a six layer billet.

The PureIron is labeled PI

The numbers 1-4 are bars from four smelts that were run on consecutive days in March of 2010.

The layer labeled 1% is from a smelt run several years ago and analyzed to be around 1% Phosphorus

Nital Etch

Detail shown by a long Nital etch. Note especially the large (~1000 micron) ferrite crystals in the 1% phosphorus bar. Darker areas in the upper half of bars three and four have a carbon content of 0.5% -0.7%. A very large copy of this image is available here link (after the page loads you can zoom in by typing Control+ on your keyboard)

Klemm's Reagent - tint etch

This image shows another slice from the billet that was treated with Klemm's reagent. Phosphorus free ferrite is tinted blue while the phosphorus containing iron is tinted gold (lowest P) to white (highest P).

A large image can be seen here link to phos