[bluefoxicy]

http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cast-Iron-Dragonfly-Black/dp/B0009HJAJQ/

There's a project for someone who can pump some iron (probably cap).  A cast iron tea pot.

Of course iron has a problem with rusting, so this wouldn't work too well unless you can figure a way to enamel the inside (as my teapot and cups are), or blacken the iron in some way that prevents rusting, or maybe smelt down the iron with wood containing an extremely high phosphorus content to create a sort of rust-proof iron by generating compounds in the structure of the iron that would adhere to the surface of any developing rust and neutralize the parasitic spread of red rust compounds...

... not that anybody has that sort of technology.  Metallurgy like that is a tiny bit more advanced than current state-of-the-art, around the same level as hematite enameling (i.e. converting the surface of the iron to dense, polished Fe2O3 enameling, difficult because deep conversion is extremely difficult and the easy way to do this is by forming rust--which becomes open-cell grainy--and then heating it to 200C.  You can't melt the hematite on either, because it liquefies at 1838K whereas iron melts at 1811K; processing this would involve mixing in a little tungsten into the base iron, which melts at 3695K, which is probably outside the range of your home smelting setup and besides... then you can't form a pure hematite enameling).

But I bet any blacksmith worth his salt could make a worthwhile iron teapot anyway.

Me?  I just bought one.  They're nice.

[jaybeerman]

Sometimes compromise has to be made, I have a similar iron kettle which has a dragon on it (can't recall the name of the Japanese maker). I've used my tea kettle nearly every day for years with no rust issues, I keep it dry/empty after use and it does have mineral buildup.  I use to think "it's not the kettle but what you do with it" but now having bought the cast iron kettle I have changed my mind. I guess having the kettle and knowing how to use it is the best of all worlds.   cheers, j


(edit) I should have added that I'd love to know enough to make my own, maybe that'll be my next big interest

[capozzoli]

Exactly, you just have to take care of it. No soap ever, no salt ever, just water and keep it dry when it is empty and you will be fine. You can season them with a little veg oil too.

Not hard to make once you have a form. In other words you have to make the original in plastaline clay, but time consuming. There are several ways to approach the casting of iron. For this I would use a method called "lost wax" . Once you have a clay positive you would then basically make molds of that that can be used over and over to produce a wax positive. Once you have several wax positives you then cover them with a plaster break away mold. Once the plaster is hard you then heat the mold up and melt the wax and pour it out. Hence the name "lost wax".

With clean empty molds you just melt your iron and fill the molds.When hard break the plaster away and you have cast iron.

Easy as making tea.