Iron making, another iron bar from an iron bloom (2022) 

Would there be a pattern at all? Only one type steel was used.

@@davesmith5656 Probably, but it wouldn't likely show well.

​@@Jim-WadeIf it was polished the same was Japanese swords were, then very likely. This was the case with a 7th century knife, and it showed the weld lines and hamon.

That's what they did as well. Though it was a difficult process and they did not understand the metallurgy as we understand it today. What is yielded from the crucibles isn't always the same, depending on the ore, either yielding great quality iron, even steel, or really crappy quality, and everything in between. Melting the bloom takes quite some time. Only much later you know if the iron or steel is any good, whilst using a lot of charcoal (precious fuel) Forging will tell you quite quickly if the iron/steel is worth processing and that is how it was processed for a long time.

@@TechnicusJoe thank you for answering, ive machined for decades but only recently became interested in the black smithing side of things. I didnt know if it was even possible to take a bloom and put it in a crucible & melt the bloom. Especially without modern equipment. Very entertaining video/channel. Thank you very much for sharing. Hope you & yours are well, & be safe buddy.

@@Apathymiller --- Videos showing traditional (very old) katana sword making, show that the bloom was broken up, the bits of steel sorted based on the texture of the break. All I know is what I've seen on videos, but it seems to fit that not all of a bloom is going to be the required quality. After sorting, they apparently added rice chaff to keep the carbon content, and judged everything by color of the steel. Making the bloom from iron sand or whatever took something like 36 hours of constant tending a huge furnace, by the head guy in the process.

@@davesmith5656 yeah without modern furnaces & equipment it seems it would take a very long time. Like you said there is varying degrees of quality in the bloom, good point. I was mainly curious if the bloom could even be done in a "wootz" style and melted down.

​@@TechnicusJoeHow many folds do you usually perform when consolidating a bloom? Also any resources regarding that?

It is easier to sqeeze the slag out by hand. From middle to edge. They use the powerhammer only to s tretch it.

You clearly skipped the video if you did not see the bloom.

No, wootz is very different, this is just iron. Wrought iron.

Wootz Damascus started from one mine in the ME, not really near Damascus, but well south of it. The ore (now gone) had a particular content of trace minerals. Similar ore was later discovered in India. Wootz isn't folded pattern from different alloys; the pattern comes from the trace minerals, and even though parts of the smelting process are known or guessed at, apparently no one has succeeded in reproducing the alloy because the trace elements are present in too small a percentage for even today's analytics. You probably knew all that, from the same video I watched.