Raimey,

Valloner were from country of Vallonia, now part of modern Belgium. They first went to Sweden in early 1600s. Families that were very much into iron making in Vallonia had extensive linkages of family ties, giving business relationships from mines to markets in Amsterdam, etc. Ongoing wars in late 1500s - early 1600s made business very risky because iron products were stratigic materials, from nails for ships to armaments. DeGeer and others went looking for quieter, more stabile location to do business.

Note that what I know is generally restricted to the "Uppland" area of Sweden, generally north of Stockholm. Other parts of Sweden also had iron mines but, not so famous until rather recent times -- Kiruna, for example.

I don't recall anything called "Catalan forge/furance". Valloner used a "double hearth" system that produced iron with less slag than that from "Germain, single hearth" forges. It also used less energy (charcoal). I only know of one järnbruk that switched to Lancashire furnace - Karlholm, about 1880. Last day of operation was 21 September 1932. That Lancashire furnace remains today and I have visited it.

There was no barrel making at mines, not that I have heard or read of. Different järnbruk had allocations of how much iron ore they could take each year from specific mines. Järnbruk were located at sites having adequate water power and forest for charcoal. Yes, deforestation was a concern and some järnbruk were rather far from mines.

There were various, specific locations where weapons were made, as well as other strategic items, anchors, for example, were exclusively made at Strömsberg. Carl Gustavs Stad was a major arms manufacturing location -- don't recall immediately when it was founded.

Very low S and P are hallmarks of Dannemora iron ore, which often also had nice amount of Mn, leading to early, natural alloys. As you can understand, speficics of Dammemora iron ore allowed smelting processes of 1500s-1600-1700-early 1800s to produce some superior irons and steels. Later, techniques to willfully purge impurities, to add desired amounts of C and Mn, etc. were developed.

So much for moment.

Niklas

PS: Edited some dates, which I had consistantly made one century too early. Hopefully, noone was using those dates.

Last edited by NiklasP; 01/07/08 10:52 AM.