Primitive Technology: Wood Ash Insulated Furnace 

Hello from Brazil 👋👋🇧🇷😁

What do you think of Fire itself? Do you look at it more like a tool or a relationship?

Your videos are(And I say this without ass kissing exaggeration) the highlight of any day that that you post. Thank you very much for sharing!

Nice going. I'm guessing that at some point we will see some primitive blacksmithing, which would be really nice.

Do you ever worry about the wood smoke? I always wonder why you never have a chimney or flue. Would a flue not allow you to retain more heat while removing the harmful gasses?

He's been doing it for a decade now. It's second nature for him, I imagine. If this guy has his fire stick, he can get an ember going faster than I can find my Bic lighter.

I can do the hand drill, best I’ve done is a coal in 2 minutes… I’m completely blown away by how easy he made it took. I’m struggling and sweaty to get it going 😂

There was smoke after the first time he got to the bottom of the stick.

@@stephenp4222 this guy gets it! best i have done is recieve blisters and failure, but from what ive seen, two minutes is good, 30 seconds is ...basically sorcery

He actually prefers to purely use a stick instead of with a bow that's how much of the goat he is

He is the original!

@@Ody9 i know

@@Pinedal i know

That's what the inventor of genre means

@@vladimirlenin843 ahahahahah, the need to explain everything

It silently shows why humans don't come together and why it's better to fly solo.

@@thebugbouncer What, the fact it takes him several months to complete each project?

💯

​@@Kaiimei 1. Diversity of skills proficiency required 2. Diverse background knowledge sufficient to make workable decisions without overmuch time spent on experimentation. 3. Economies of synchronization, many of these tasks are most efficient done continuously and/or in parallel, generally impossible alone.

@@thebugbouncer One person couldn't live like this dumbass. It shows exactly why humans have never lived alone, this guy doesn't raise animals, or plant/harvest crops. This is all he does and it takes up all his time. Humans don't survive on their own.

An airplane

I'm thinking fish hook. Maybe a blade of some kind ?

Sort them by size and regularity, find a suitable bearing case material, a sturdy axle …

I really, really hope he tries crucible steel with whatever amount he collects. Quality carbon steel from creek mud by hand would be amazing to watch.

A knife is always a priority it serves as a tool and also a weapon.

Thank you, almost forgot.

Well in all of them he explains

I like to watch once with out, once with! It is fun to see how close i got to the Whys and Hows

@alexdedich6377 when I found out about it, I had to go back and rewatch all his videos 😂

Thanks

TBH I'm glad his TV show didn't pan out because I know they would push him to change the format or to cheat like so many other fake "primitive" channels out there. Now he can continue what he was doing unimpeded and we get to enjoy it.

​@@cptn_chromo3189honestly though if he could get just one friend or a son out there to help him I think it would be an amazing and welcome addition to the channel! I feel like work would be finisheduch quicker and with less effort from John so he doesn't possibly get burned out (no pun intended) or lose patience while working. And if his friend happened to be a Smith or metal expert who could add knowledge to the forging and processing techniques, it would make for higher quality products that would just amazing the audience even further. But obviously that isn't his style, he is a solo worker and I respect that, but aan can dream, can't he? 😅

This man is gonna be in the steel age in a few years at the rate hes progressing through the tech tree

He could have posted an update though, even just a text message. Instead he just fucked off without a peep. I thought he died or something. Only found out he was still alive cause someone reached out to him and commented under his last video. Didn't even bother to do it himself.

@free_spirit1 Such emotional pain. This isn’t the first time you’ve been hurt is it. Did you catch her in the act or…?

I’ve heard that at the time, iron was a fair bit more common since we hadn’t used up all of the “easy” to get to stuff yet. Plus, there probably would’ve been a lot more than just one guy at a time going out to mine iron. It still would’ve been really hard, but not quite as hard as it is to do solo nowadays.

Different geographic regions have different forms of iron. Some regions had a much easier time collecting raw ore. I believe similar reasoning is why glass work from ancient middle east is still unmatched, they had bountiful silica sand so it was easy to collect resources for glass blowing.

It was significantly easier than what he is doing. For one thing one person didn't do everything. One person would retrieve the high quality ore. Another would make charcoal. And someone else would process the ore.

@@Imaboss8ball I’d imagine that it wouldn’t be much easier on a per person basis, since they’d still put in as much work as they could. But collectively it’d be easier to accumulate large amounts of iron

most folks back then didn't get ore from iron bacteria. Basically all other sources of iron are easier to work than that.

2-Step Furnace

Yeah!

Well technically cast iron is a super high carbon steel, im actually not sure why its absorbing so much carbon to begin with, his bloomaries never seem to behave like normal ones, like he is reaching the peak temperatures, and he is using a relatively quality ore. I think he needs to add some silica to the ore to act as a flux, then he should expect some higher quality blooms

@@folsomforge6232well the wood fire it’s cooking in adds a lot of carbon

​@@folsomforge6232well normal bloomeries dont use iron bacteria waste so maybe that's making the difference, zhey probably do more bulk of ore too

@@markd.s.8625 there is a huge variety in the types of ore used, bog iron, magnetite, other kinds of stone bound ore, the iron bacteria seems to be a similar quality to bog iron (the best one to use)

@@kadeskorni296 he didnt always do an initial roast but it still produced cast iron (excessive carbon) maybe he is overdoing the airflow and fully melting the iron, that often results in unusable steel and cast iron in regular bloomaries. To be clear im not sure nor do i have any actual experience with bloomaries, i just did a lot of research in what can go right or wrong

Second that!

One of only two channels where if possible, I drop what I'm doing and watch as soon as I see there's a new video.

Not really a good day for me, i just watched that video of the cartel flaying a guys face while he was alive, traumatized me for life

That's truth.

@@MikkoMaggieMore Error 404

Yes I did a smelt that recycled the slag and it produces a bit of iron as is. The slag would make a good flux. Thanks.

@@primitivetechnology9550 so you have made a metal knife , recently most of your videos are furnace uprgrades and such Whats you plan for the metal? I’m so excited to see the advancements whilst staying primative

some sort of flux, industry uses limestone , crushed shells could work as well I suppose :)

@@mysticvirgo9318 iirc he tried using crushed shells and it decreased his yield significantly

​@@primitivetechnology9550How do yo know 9 double-handfuls of coal was ~1.5Kg?How'd you measure it?

David Attenborough is going to get a call about a long lost Australian village someone found out in the woods

that’s actually a very cool perspective. I always liked to imagine my ancestors doing this stuff, i never thought of a whole village of people doing all of this

Imagine this work being done by 10-20 people, while other 5 hunt for food. It’s awesome to see how and why humanity chose to form small communities and benefit from team work.

While recording my lazy ass to watch, supreme content

Funny, that's exactly the thought I had watching his smelting setup! Like the creations of an entire community, or a family passing it on! Now a village of Johns, that would be a sight to behold!

Great recommendation regarding the spiral. What is the slag? Is it of any use? He sure does seem to get a lot of it. And is it possible to put it into a crucible at the bottom at the start to keep it refined vs. mixing in with the charcol? Also why does he mix in the powder so slowly? I'm full of questions!

​@@abcqer555I'm not an expert, but from the few videos I've been able to find on the subject over the past few months, I believe introducing the ore and coal in smaller batches helps it heat more evenly. As for what the slag is, it's everything from the ore that wasn't iron, mixed with carbon from the charcoal. Some methods also involve adding a flux like silica (a main part of sand) or borax (I think?), which causes the heated slag (again, anything besides the metal) to become more fluid, allowing the iron to form into bigger pills (I think). This also causes the resulting slag to become slightly more glass like which I think is pretty cool.

Do you think that a gear-spun blower powered by a turning wheel would allow for hotter temperatures since the air flow would be much more even?

@@AeyakS A gear spun blower would increase the gearing and allow the blower to spin faster. This would push more air (with it oxygen) which would burn the fuel faster and raise the temp. The ashes were used as insulation to increase the temp by reducing losses. I don't think air flow stability is much of a factor

Also the slag seems like it could be used as an insulator, its structure resembles that of a cellular cinder block. Maybe mix the slag with mortar and cast it to the furnace casing? It'll probably help the structure last longer too.

Cool

omg yes i was amazed

Me too

I mean, he's got a lot of history to catch up with :D

I see you under every video now

he's technically just hit the iron age so he's got plenty of material to work with. :D

SPAM BOT

What no way I still remember his first videos he got millions of subscribers within a couple of months or so

Much appreciated. Yes the timelapse is something new I've been trying that helps shorten long processes into viewable segments. Thanks.

Same, i watched this sequence several times, also apreciate that you always include repetitions of processes you demonstrated before, it is fascinating to follow along with your experimentation an gradual improvements. Thank You!

a literal master at making fire with his bare hands. I'm in a wheelchair I would tear the shit outta my hands doing that.

It's always amazing.

Looks like he grabbed it by a protruding point, so that spot may have been cooler than the rest of the lump. Also it was still covered in ash, giving his hands some insulation.

Just a reminder, that water sizzle WAS THE NEXT DAY

Maybe my man has worked food service. Hot hands are something else.

Every time he smelts iron he cooks the callouses on his hand a little more

@@technocolossus7763 i used to hang out in and sometimes work at a hookah lounge. grabbing red hot coals between thumb and finger was nothing after a while.

he's gotten so fast with the hand drill, it's nuts

Or, eventually, obtaining slaves and establishing an extractive empire to get the resources more efficiently

The guy is saving up enough iron to finally move out of the stone age. Old school indeed...

I was about to ask... How come wood ash is an insulator? What are its properties?

@@nik9094 Low thermal conductivity, it takes a lot of time to heat and being in that comprissed space doesn't let any heat go to the sides and it all converges upwards where you want it for better oxigen consumption, faster heating and higher temperatures

​@@marcelomarcelo514 Interesting! Thanks :)

​@nik9094 Air is the real insulator, the ash traps it in thousands of tiny pockets that stop heat conducting or convecting away from the inner furnace. It's also as burnt as it's ever going to get, so the heat won't degrade it.

Yes, and the fact he doesn't cut and shut each section. John shows the whole sequence unlike others.

yep

hoping for frying pan

My guess would be some form of a axe

​@@Pedasjmatoo brittle

The smart choice would be something that improves the efficiency of getting more iron. He is basically skipping over bronze age tech in favor of iron, so it's understandably slow.

@@VME-BradTo make bronze, you need access to copper and tin. Iron is available in situ, so it makes sense to go for that.

He also never throws anything away. Everything is recycled.

I'm hoping for a crude Knife, it would be a huge step up for its uses, that, or an axe if he can get enough iron. I would prefer he climb the technology tree step by step though, so a knife with wooden handle.

@@icedanilzation A knife or a shovel would be the best options I think. He doesn't seem to take too long to gather wood without an axe

Im hoping he makes an Iron Broadsword

He made sort of a proto knife before so that would be my guess. That or some other kind of tool, something that would overall make work easier or possible. Metal hammer for more metalworking? Probably not, but it's a possibility. Metal axe? Maybe. Upgrade from the original stone hatchet.

Probably a bladed tool with a better edge than the cast iron knife he made.

I’m pretty sure iron was (relatively) plentiful enough during the Iron Age that nobody would’ve even thought of using that funny orange muck to make metal when they could use rocks instead. But I’m not a historian, that’s just what I’ve heard other people say.

He doesn't use ore because he simply doesn't have any nearby. His only sources of iron are iron bacteria and magnetite sand. He experimented with washing the sand to extract iron, but i assume it required more effort than iron bacteria method for the same result

I prefer the bog standard approach of bog iron.

​@oberonpanopticon This was how the vikings got a lot of their iron. They didn't have iron mines for the most part but plenty of bog iron.

The ancients wouldn't have used muck. They'd've used a high iron content naturally occurring ore like magnetite, hematite or similar.

This is a post made by a bot.

@@komicsreviewer8505 No that's just how I talk

@@komicsreviewer8505ChatGPT gets its grammar and capitalization right.

@@hamburgerhamburgerv2 Who do u think did 9/11??

Much appreciated. The slag and iron mass sort of sits on a layer of unburnt charcoal that doesn't get air so that the slag and iron don't actually touch the floor of the furnace. I could try it though, it might help insulate if from the ground beneath the furnace. Thanks.

Hi John, can you make glasses (like window or bottle) out of sand? Thank you in advance!@@primitivetechnology9550

I was thinking about placing the ore in a stone recepticle. Seperating it from the charcoal. But creating such a stone "cup" in primitive conditions would require a metal chizel i think.

Yeah like try to farm it somehow? Or perhaps just ensure that the places it likes to grow are as fertile as possible or whatever.

Minecraft Automatic Iron Bacteria Farm (NO REDSTONE!) [1.79.2]

​@@capertillar4634why do I have a feeling this might happen lmao

@@capertillar4634 when you put several villagers in the middle of a lake, they build an iron golem, but since they cant actually do it the iron just gets spread around in the water

im pretty sure he already concentrated it in a part of the stream. and put rocks around to make a slow point in the water flow so it can collect and grow.

For me I am very curious about a particular question: If society was torn down, but we still kept access to knowledge, how long would it take to get back to where we are today? When you watch this video, you realize that the answer is only a few generations. To get from hunter-gatherer to digital citizen took 10's of thousands of years, but if it all burns down tomorrow, assuming we are able to preserve access to knowledge in books and whatnot, we will be back to the silicon age in 100 years or less. I don't know why I find the question interesting, but I do. Like you I am fascinated by it, but maybe for slightly different reasons.

@@mckenziekeith7434 that's pretty much the story of Dr stone. An anime about a kid who's a walking encyclopedia in a world hit by some mysterious event and he wants to go back to space in his lifetime. And he has to build back up from nothing. It isn't super realistic but you might enjoy it.

@@mckenziekeith7434 i too find this a fascinating thought experiment. The first few decades would be brutal, though..

It is fascinating to realise, how much laber goes into a little bit of iron.. good thing it can easily be reused and has accumulated over time. Nowadays, every person on Earth (especyialy in global north) has easy acces and use of many kilogramms of the stuff!

@@mckenziekeith7434 not just knowledge, but also resources. there will still be plenty of destroyed or even still usable objects and materials around, and if you need to make something, it is way easier to melt down an already refined copper cable instead of raw copper ore for example. if it was somehow only people and knowledge that got preserved then it would probably take more than 100 years, but that is not really a realistic scenario anyway

It is fake

@@Herbiesgamingchannel. You're fake

Even more of a madman if he starts puddling it. I only know of larger scale examples from history, so I'm not sure if that technique scales down to this scale if limited to primitive/manual means or not. I imagine his next step is going to be making a crucible so he can do one melt of all his collected prills and such.

Soon: “Building train tracks to better transport wood ash to the hut.

@@ParameterGrenze yay another rail gauge standard for Australia! Oh joy!

I mean Australia has some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world 😂 the ground is litterally red because of the iron. I don't think he needs to move countries. Maybe states

@@Jeremy-wh4di I think he said somewhere that there is no iron ore were he does his videos, so he resorts to bacteria. This is pretty impressive actually.

Better than his 2 year break though, that was hard

@@billycrooks8401 oh my lord yeah that was terrible, I suppose he has come back stronger though

@@j0hnno for sure can't wait for iron age

For real, he touched the slag and then put water on it after and it was hot enough to make the water steam 😮

he picks up small pieces of charcoal from around a glowing fiery furnace to toss them in , he must have teflon hands

@@carlazuz1201 The water scene was THE NEXT DAY bro

Suffice to say, DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF! Ash is remarkable insulation. Quite a few people have learned how to handle live coals without getting burned; they look for a thick layer of ash. Also, "fire walkers" employ a similar trick, only stepping in when the fire has burned down to mostly ash. Plus, it looks like he handled the slag lump by a protruding point - quite possibly a much cooler spot.

@@Mark-dc1su but he still touched it before he put water on it homie

found the factorio engineer.

Historically speaking, you wouldn't usually be extracting Iron from bacteria, but from ore deposits found in stone, like hematite. PT simply doesn't have any of that locally to work with. Essentially he chose to enter the Iron age on hard mode.

Copper and bronze had been utilized for hundreds of years before iron became widespread, and those metals are much easier to work with. Iron smelting was a gradual process, but definently still required a ton of effort over many generations. Although this guy is alone and doesnt have access to good quality ore, he only has iron bacteria and a bit of magnetite sand.

​​@@scottmacgregor3444ironically that is where you are wrong. It wasn't till later into the iron age that they began mining iron ore, a lot of it came from bog iron or iron sand to begin with

@@SilvaDreams Interesting. Is bog iron the same as iron bacteria?

@@scottmacgregor3444 Yes. Mineral processes with the help of bacteria concentrate iron into little nodules. The nodules are carefully harvested so the bog can keep producing them. Iron as a renewable resource - crazy, huh?

Primitive ASMR

Actually a great idea ^

That might take 10 hours long but I love it LOL

@@MrHeat48 Maybe not that long, lol. Says in the video this smelt took 1.5 hours

I agree, they're very calm and relaxing.

Hey can't help that it's calm and relaxing. He has no need for any pointless music anywhere that would just detract from what he is sharing.

It's the lack of talking, whilst still being fascinating.

There is a certain irony in saying no technology distractions, we are watching a guy on a technology device re-create the technologies of our ancestors. But, it is undoubtedly more connected to the natural environment.

Just curious, what makes you think he was with horses during any lockdown? I would guess he might live so far away from dense populations that he didn't need to do any real lockdown. I would never ask for such details but just a thought.

@@maxxtubing 1. He has modern house and live like regular person when not making videos 2. He also, during his hiatus, had a TV Deal being made or something. I don't know if it has been aired, cable exclusive or what.

​@@victoriazero8869he has a modern house... on the property we see here. He does live in a fairly low density environment (as if there are any high density areas in 'straya haha)

@@maxxtubing It's an expression we use here in Australian. He would know that I'm making good-natured fun of the extra kilos he's put on.

There are Videos of metal smelting the old fashioned way and furnaces don't really need to be too big to get a decent bloom that is then hammered into usable metal

​@@Slouworker I know there are, but it would still be interesting to see that being done on Primitive Technology. Edit: It could even function as a milestone for the channel, with a reliable method to get metal with relatively less effort (when compared to having to smash the hardened bloom and take the metal parts out one by one). Edit2: After the milestone, he could dabble in making lenses out of tree-sap resin and rosin (dried up tree-sap resin), and in making textiles for clothes. Both the transparent (even if slightly/lightly tinted) resin/rosin, and the textiles waterproofed with wax or oils, could be used for making greenhouses. That way, we could still get some content during the winter, if he starts now to make a stove with (thermal) mass to store the heat, like a rocket mass stove, or a vortex stove with the exhaust used like with a rocket-mass stove. To help with growing without needing much heating or any heating at all, it would help to have the greenhouse 1 meter (or yard, or 3 feet) deep, use the dugout dirt to make walls just as tall, then have the roof made from either waterproofed textiles or from cement sheet (mixing textile fibers with cement to make a flexible cement sheet, like the asbestos sheets but without asbestos and still being flammable) or even from transparent panes/panels/lenses. And with those done, he could try making other things in the winter, from the warmth of his clothes (which would likely require him to make felt-textiles) and the warmth of the greenhouse, for example using the lenses to make a microscope (i.e. a foldable microscope like those used in the textile industry or in schools), a telescope (to map out an area), and maybe even try to polish iron sheets to as close to a mirror finish as possible, which would allow to use those to make a telescope, or to use a tripod with each foot pushed up by another tripod to get a mirror above the tree line so the telescope could be used for mapping the area, and a set of ropes could be used to angle the mirror as needed. For the mirror finish, there might be the need for making a treadle which to rotate a felt-textile pillow with some clay on it and and an iron sheet in front of it, with the metal sheet being moved in a circle without rotating it to remove the rotation lines which would otherwise appear, and the whole mechanism could also be made to use a windmill or a waterwheel (if legal; in some parts of USA it's not legal).

Gonna take him a while to build a thermal camera out of sticks and clay, but I have complete confidence in him.

Using a thermal camera would be a far stretch from... primitive technology. But yeah, I concur. Would be interesting to see those temps.

bro building a normal camera out of reeds to film videos with must’ve taken him long enough, no way he’s going to make another one for different wavelengths!

Well the furnace is at least 1500C. That's the required melting temp of iron. So I'd imagine the hut was pretty damn hot lol.

@@Scottx125Productions That's like the normal temps during summer in australia

Yes, very soothing. I never watch these with subtitles, for me it ruins the experience.

That moment when the top burst into flames made me want to see it through a thermal camera.

Yes, it would be cool to see some modern tech involved just to show how impressive his primitive stuff is.