BLOOMERY IRON objects from the Wareham Forge by Artisan Blacksmith Darrell Markewitz of Ontario Canada. Starting with raw ore and using reserected 1000 year old methods to create unique and distinctive pieces.

Welcome to the Wareham Forge, the work of Artisan Blacksmith Darrell Markewitz of Ontario Canada. Here traditional hand forged techniques are blended with original custom designs to create distinctive objects for garden or architecture. (What is called 'wrought iron work' by some.) A specialist in the Viking Age, creating reproductions for Museums and re-enactors. Offering training courses various aspects of Metalsmithing, plus instructional DVD's.

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Main Sections

GALLERY

Objects Created from
Bloomery Iron

Note : Some of these descriptions may be repeated in other areas.

'Bloom Bowl' Series

	Bloom Bowl 4 August 2014 forged bloomery iron The starting iron bloom was produced in smelt #24, June 2007. The hemi-spherical mass was first flattened to a plate, with the ragged edges and textures of the parent bloom retained. For a full description of the complex creation process of this object, see the blog post. 15 x 12 cm, top edge 7 cm high
	Offering Bowl 2 / Turf to Tools Summer 2014 forged bloomery iron The parent bloom and this later object was created as part of the Turf to Tools project at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (Lumsden, Scotland). The forge set up and equipment at SSW was at best minimal. As well, the coal available was not the best (high sulphur content). As a result, the forge weld from the original consolidation compaction and fold was not as secure as I had hoped. In the end this resulted in the 'double layer' effect during the dishing phase of the forging. (In the collection of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop)
	Bloom Bowl 2 Summer 2011 forged bloomery iron The parent bloom was created at the 2005 Smeltfest event. The metal itself was made from ore smelted using a direct reduction furnace based on those from the Viking Age. (In this case the same Econo-Norse type being demonstrated by DARC on Thursday at CanIRON 8.) The original bloom mass was quartered by hot cutting. This section was flattened under the air hammer, working at welding temperature. Only one compaction series was undertaken, intentionally to allow cracks and fissures to develop along the margins of the plate. The roughly rectangular plate was then dished hot to create the bowl's shape. The inner surface was roughly polished with a flap sanding disk. The outer surface was given a fast wire brush to remove any loose scale. To finish, the piece was sealed with a spray matte varathane.
	Offering Bowl Fall 2008 forged bloomery iron 'Offering Bowl' is forged from part of the 'Resurrection' Bloom made at in 2005. I envisioned creating a bowl like form that was sold in the centre and preserved the ragged edges of the natural bloom along the margins. Fragments of the bloom were welded into a thin plate, roughly 8 inches long by about 4 wide and roughly 1/8 thick. There was some splintering and cracking in the centre of the plate, specifically retained to show the origins of the material. The plate was forged with ball peens into a deep dishing form. This created the final partial sphere shape. More Details available on 'Hammered Out Bits'

Blades with Bloomery Iron

	Norse Styled Knives 2022-2023 bloomery iron apple wood branch / antler handles This is a group of small tool, carving, and kitchen profile knives made for members of DARC, who had participated in many of the iron smelts that created the starting blooms. All had been lightly etched to show the variations in carbon content seen as shadows and faint contrasted lines. The number of times individual bloom pieces had been folded and welded in consolodation can vary widely. The lower image is a detail of one blade that illustrates not only differences in carbon carbon within the bloom, but also changes from carbon migration during the repeated welding steps. The black lines are remaining slag inclusions.
	French Trade Axe 2013 bloomery iron with inset carbon steel edge modern (commercial) ash handle $ 800 - this item available This is a loose replica of an artifact in my collection, a Biscayne pattern French Trade axe, a type first introduced into Ontario starting in the early 1600's and manufactured to about 1760. The block of bloomery iron I used was somewhat smaller than what had been used to make the original. The final forged shape is not quite identical to to artifact. Finished dimensions: head weight = 1050 gm width at edge = 9.5 cm total length = 20 cm thickness at eye = 2 cm width of eye = 5 cm Creation Details : as poster / as blog post
	'Hector's Bane' Spring 2012 bloomery iron / carbon steel core $ 1000 - this item available 'Hector's Bane' shows a combination of influences: The unique nature of bloomery iron is featured by deliberately allowing the natural flaws of a raw bloom to remain. This has been emphasized by etching the finished surface, the mottled greys indicating variations in carbon content within the material. To create an effective cutting edge, the two half pieces of one bloom have been forge welded on to a hard carbon steel core. The more solid inner side to the bottom at the cutting edge, intentionally leaving the outer, fragmented outer surface to the back of the blade. The overall blade shape was inspired by ancient Greek bronze knives. After some consideration, the polished blade was lightly etched. This resulted in a 'fog' colouration over the surface, an effect of the variations in carbon content within the original bloom. 26 x 4.5 x .7 cm overall / blade 16 cm Creation Details : as poster / as blog post
	Bloom Seax Spring 2011 bloomery iron, cherry When attempting to document older work, often the details get lost. I have images of this blade as rough forged from June of 2010, then finished in February of 2011. A small fragment of bloom was converted to bar, that bar was just enough to forge this small Viking Age styled tool knife. The bar was left purposefully with some small cracks, to better show the original of the material. The finished blade is 13 cm long by 2.2 cm at it's widest. Polishing was done on an 1880's vintage peddle driven, large diameter, grind stone. The tang was a short 'rat tail' type, which was mounted into a piece of cherry wood branch. This knife is my own personal, used in my living history presentations with DARC.
	'Layered Test' Seax Fall 2008 'pattern welded' bloomery iron The concept was this: 'Would a slab of bloom iron, folded and twisted in the pattern weld technique, actually show any distinctive patterning?' The parent bloom used for both 'Offering Bowl' (above) and the resulting 'Layer Test Seax' was one made at Early Iron 2 (Cooperstown 2005), the 'Resurrection' bloom. The working bar was made up from two smaller fragments, subjected to several welding steps to create the billet, which was drawn to a longer bar, then loosely twisted, cut in half and welded again. If you count just the folds and welds from the starting pieces, that gave 16 layers total. The total length is 9 inches, with 5 inches of blade. It is 1" wide and 3/16" thick at the back at its widest point (just at the transition to the hilt). A fuller description of work and this object can be found on a blog post.

Other Objects

'A bloom by any other name...'
2023

structural angle and pipe, bloomery iron
decorative paint on natural wood base

This piece was created specifically for the gallery at CanIRON XIII. It was concieved as a rip on the 'iron rose' pieces seen so often from hobbiest blacksmiths. The fractured appearance of raw bloom pieces was contrasted with the smoother surfaces of forged industrial mild steel. This further highlighted by the use of bright paint (itself a contrast to the black paint coatings commonly seen). Bloom pieces represented the withered and dead parts of the plant. The piece stands about 45 cm tall

'Iron Blooms to Working Bars' is a special project from February 15 to May 15, 2012.
It is supported by a Crafts Projects - Creation and Development Grant.
The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.

The purpose of the grant is to cover three months deicated time to allow development of a practical understanding of how to covert raw blooms into working bars, and if time permits, into finished objects. Part of the process will be to document the ongoing project, and publish the results via a dedicated blog, this web site, through demonstrations, formal papers or jounal articles.

Who is Darrell Markewitz?

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