Reconstruction of "Tatara" Furnace for Direct Steelmaking and Its Operation Techniques of Mr. Yoshizo Abe as a Leader Murage

Abstract

In 1977, Japan Institute of Art Japanese Sword was reconstructed Tatara furnace for direct steelmaking from iron sand and charcoal, so called Kera-oshi method. This Tatara furnace called Nittouho Tatara was constructed on the base of Yasukuni Tatara furnace which had been operated until the end of the World War II in Yokota city in Shimane prefecture. For this reconstruction of the furnace and the direct steelmaking, operation, the great effort of Mr. Yoshizo Abe as a leader Murage had been paid and his techniques should be made clear. Until the age of Yasukuni Tatara, Kera-oshi method was consisted of 4 stages; Komori, Komoritsugi, Nobori and Kudari. In the 2nd stage of Komoritsugi, Komori iron sand had been used to charge because of easy reduction and production of pig iron. In 1977, Mr. Abe had met difficulty to collect Komori iron sand. Then, he developed the new technique of Tatara operation using only Masa iron sand for the last two stages in spite of Komori iron sand. He controlled the wet of iron sand and made the residual time of iron sand longer in furnace. The reduced iron particles have enough time to absorb carbon for producing pig iron.