Showing all 31 replies.
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I hike in remote places a lot and I've always dreamed of finding a secret camp or cabin and the people there offering me food or a place to stay or even to come live with them, but it has never happened.
I hiked 9 hours through a remote wilderness and all I found manmade was a single old rail tie when my entire route was once a narrow gauge railroad.
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>>2866335
if someone is around i'd probably say hello, but i'd otherwise just fuck off like how i otherwise would have if there was nothing to begin with
its like finding any other site/building; its obviously not a drug operation or schizo hut, because (violent) criminals & crazies don't do that sorta shit
at worst i get to be in a youtube video, at best i meet an interesting & well educated person
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>>2866335
Man's probably out looking for arrowroots
Give him some metal since he's been trying so hard to get metal
I do want to go out there and make a structure like this but I live in a third world shithole and the forests are full of gangs and thieves
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>>2866550
## Step 1: Build a Simple Clay Furnace (Bloomery)
You’re making what’s called a **bloomery furnace**.
**Materials:**
* Clay + sand (to prevent cracking)
* Straw or grass (helps structure)
* A pipe/nozzle (called a *tuyere*) for air
* Charcoal (not regular wood)
* Iron ore (hematite, magnetite, or even rust)
**Shape:**
* About 50–100 cm tall
* Narrow shaft (cylinder)
* Hole near bottom for air input
Let it dry completely before using.
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## Step 2: Add Air (Critical)
You need a steady airflow:
* Hand bellows, foot bellows, or even a blower
* This raises temperature to ~1200°C
Without enough air, you won’t get usable iron.
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## Step 3: Smelt the Iron
1. Preheat furnace with charcoal
2. Add layers:
* Charcoal
* Crushed iron ore
3. Keep feeding both for several hours (3–6h)
**What happens:**
* Iron doesn’t fully melt
* You get a spongy mass called a **bloom** (iron + slag)
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## Step 4: Extract and Forge the Bloom
* Remove the glowing bloom
* Hammer it while hot to squeeze out slag
Now you have **wrought iron**, not steel yet.
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## Step 5: Turn Iron into Steel (Carburization)
This is the key step most people miss.
1. Heat the iron in charcoal for a long time
2. Carbon from charcoal diffuses into the iron
3. Repeat heating + hammering
This process slowly creates **steel** (iron + carbon).
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## Reality Check
* You will **not get molten steel** in a simple clay furnace
* You’ll get **solid-state iron**, then convert it
* It takes multiple tries to get good quality steel
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## Simple Summary
* Furnace makes **iron bloom**
* Hammering makes **wrought iron**
* Reheating in charcoal makes **steel**
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>>2866917
most wildernesses were once railroads or at a minimum skid roads to haul logs
things only become wilderness when they are undesirable for farming or other commercial use, they have already taken the timber, coal, gas etc. and a private owner wants to make money off of useless land by selling it to the government
these railroads usually existed for 10-20 years at most and were just there to extract logs and then they took all the ties and sold them for scrap
it also turns the road into horrible horrible mud if it was a railroad and then isn't maintained and regraded and no drainage system is added
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>>2866550
I'd recommend the book Frontier Iron if you actually care.
White men literally blazed trails, roads, and supply lines a thousand miles from the coast with no authorities or existing infrastructure and starting forging on the spot because no one could haul steel anywhere.
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