The International Iron Working Festival – Iron Smelting Days 2016 will occur in Stara Fužina, the village near the Lake Bohinj. The owner of the castle was the Zois family that had the whole iron facilities in Bohinj and other places from the years 1740 – 1869. The program of Iron Working Festival will show practical smelting the bloom to billet or bar, using domestic ore, charcoal and clay. We expect five groups for smithing because we are limited with finding proper quantity of ore. Each group makes its own furnace. We in Bohinj will prepare a simple open building for furnaces and crew (rain possible), the ore and simple roasting oven. According to our knowledge, the roasting of ore is necessary! Roasting will be done by your group! Paralell with smelting program we will prepare an exhibition of old iron culture in nearby Kulturni dom (Home of culture in Stara Fužina). Near the place of smelting there will be a symbol model of Brescian smelting furnace used in Stara Fužina where in the year 1580 a new indirect method of smelting was introduced.

IRON WORKING PROGRAM (7th June – 12 June 2016)
1.DAY – noon TUESDAY, 7th June: ARRIVAL, Accommodation, Opening
2.DAY – WEDNESDAY, 8th June: Inspecting the place and prepared materials; Roasting ore – preparing smith hearth, building 3 smelting furnaces.
3.DAY – THURSDAY, 9th June: Excursions, symposium?
4.DAY – FRIDAY, 10th June
5.DAY – SATURDAY, 12th June: Smelting and smithing -2 groups possible repairing, Final report in the evening, Closing the Festival
6.DAY – morning SUNDAY, 12th June: Departure, Farewell

A degree of difficulty is that there is only 30 kg raw ore/team. It would be nice if you bring with you 30-50 kg of raw/refined ore. When it is not used, we can display iron making in different part of Europe.