When I started this blog, one of the things at the top of my list was building a primitive workshop at home. I have a small outbuilding which would suit, but it somehow never happened; I didn’t get it done that first summer, and then I suddenly had a baby to look after (OK, not that sudden, it took 9 months), a residency at Loughborough Uni, and lots of research to do. Although I’m not ruling out a home workshop, I’ve always been worried about smoke and noise irritating the neighbours, so maybe I’ll wait until we move house.
Fortunately for me, some friends have recently taken out a lease on a 15-acre patch of ancient woodland, near Stoke-on-Trent. They’ll be booking it out for all sorts of events, primarily live roleplay, but also camping, and eventually bushcraft/primitive tech weekends. There are trees of all ages there, mostly deciduous, with a few scotch pines along the top edge. Beneath the mulch and soil, there is a layer of clay, hopefully of reasonable purity. There are some water sources, including a stream bed at the bottom of the site, but it’s been a dry winter, so it’s hard to know how much water the site can generate – we aren’t talking about drinking water here, just general workshop water for cleaning materials, quenching, crude chemical reactions, and so on. Examining a site like this really makes you aware of how important water was to our ancestors – an otherwise ideal site for habitation and work is of little use if there is no accessible water. By next year, there should be mains water, but for now, a basic rain-catcher and water butt will be needed. There are a number of barrels onsite, metal and plastic, from its previous incarnation as an airsoft site. The plastic barrels aren’t suitable for drinking water, but they’ll be ideal for a workshop water butt.
The other thing that the site is lacking is stone. Aside from a few bricks and large pebbles along the top edge, thrown there by the farmer as his machinery pulls them out of his fields, there really is almost nothing within the boundary of the site. This isn’t the end of the world, but it will be a shame to work without stone as a building material for furnaces and so on.
Quite a bit of effort is being put into the site by myself and others – in particular, I’ve been granted a small glade to work in. My first task was to rip out the rhododendrons and remove leaf mulch off the floor. This is going to make the area more prone to mud, but if I’m using hot processes, I have to remove the fire risk. No doubt I’ll keep the mulch in a pile, to tread back into the mud as it appears. With a bit of help from Alex and Dazz, various offending tree branches have been removed, and I now have a clear patch of work in. I don’t think the photos do it justice, but at least it gives some idea. I’m also restoring a little path that runs from the entry gate to my glade, to ensure easy access for wheelbarrows…etc. Although I expect to use other parts of the site for one-off experiments, most of what I do will be here.
Before I can actually start doing metalwork, there are a lot of other things to look into. The aim is to use onsite inputs wherever possible; my friends also have a smallholding, so there is the potential for wool, animal fat and other types of wood from there. The main onsite materials that I have are clay and wood. My first plan is to begin processing the clay. I’ll cut a plastic barrel in half, down its long axis, and set the two halves into the ground as weathering pits. These are quite large barrels, so they should furnish me with all the clay I’m likely to need in the near future, and of course they can be replenished as they are consumed. One pit will contain clay dug out of the ground (there is a convenient trench already dug), while the other will contain clay from the bottom of the site, in the stream bed. This is likely to be the cleaner and finer of the two, but it will be a lot of hassle to collect in anything but small amounts, due to the terrain. Once the weathering pits are established, I’ll set up some more barrels to use as a washing system, but this is dependent on collecting enough water with my rain-catcher, so it might not happen immediately. Hopefully, the stream bed clay will be quite clean already – it certainly looks it.
I’m confident that we have decent clay, because the first piece has already been fired! This wasn’t any sort of formal experiment – we had an event at the site the previous weekend, and I threw various bits of clay into the fire pit. Most came out with only minor colour change, and remained brittle, but one of them came out grey and hard, and even has a thumb print on it! Only a small step, but I am surprisingly proud of it. The clay will mainly be used for crucibles and hearth linings; I’m not ruling out other uses, but I’m a long way from making other sorts of vessels, both in terms of materials, and of skill. It’s likely that filler materials will need to be explored, to improve the properties of the clay. I’m hoping that I’ll also find someone who can identify the composition of the clay – I’m not really sure how to find out otherwise!
The other major thing to prepare for will be the use of the wood onsite. 15 acres of woodland obviously generates a certain amount of deadwood, and the upkeep of the trees should supply us with plenty of wood. We’ll be using it for construction, for burning, and for charcoal production, amongst other things. And when I saw “we”, I mean that I won’t be the only one using it, so my supply will be limited. As the site won’t be permanently inhabited, I’m not too worried about this. The coniferous trees are gradually being taken out by a tree surgeon, and these are yielding some softwood, which needs to be utilised ASAP; when it’s gone, it will be gone. Long term, that’s no bad thing, as we’d like to eventually try making soap from lye, and softwood apparently produces contaminated lye, due to the resins. It’s these resins that I am interested in for the short term, if I can work out a suitable method of extracting them.
I’ll need to start drying wood for charcoal production, and setting up a suitable airtight system for it. I’m hoping to initially use one of the metal barrels – cutting the lid off will be a task, but I’m confident that it can be done (bearing in mind that we don’t have mains electricity). If the metal is ductile enough, I should be able to flange the edge inwards, to provide a seat for the lid to sit on. I’ll be looking into more traditional methods for charcoal production, but a balance must be made between traditional experiments and the practical limits of the site. In the end, whatever generates the most charcoal will be the preferred method, as the charcoal is only a means to an end, that end being metallurgical processes like cupellation and smelting.
There are so many things that I can try, it’s just a matter of time and skill, both of which are short. As usual, if anyone has any suggestions, advice or criticism, I’d love to hear it. I know that there are plenty of people out there who are very proficient in this area, and I know that I’ll be doing a lot of learning before I have any chance of innovating. Keep your eyes on the blog for further posts.
{ 2 comments }
You could dry the clay and sieve it to remove pebbles and stuff. Re hydrate and then age. I have also heard that beer added to the clay will make it more plastic.
marilyn
Thanks Marilyn. Yes, I’ve heard that is one method of refining the clay. As things stand, the clay looks to be very clean – actually drying it and grinding it may be more hassle than it is worth. What I may do is wash it to refine the particle size. I had a play at rolling some out the other day, into a thin string, and it was very easy, with no breakages.
As for beer – interesting, I’ll look into it. If anything, though, I might have to reduce the plasticity of this stuff!
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