Process of Irons Smelting in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State

Abstract

Iron smelting entails heating of iron at a particular temperature to enable smelter to form objects of desirable shape, Such temperature can be obtainable in a well-insulated medium size furnace, when efficient bellows and a suitable type of charcoal (and of course strong and experienced workers) are employs but some lower temperature can or may still give the satisfactory result of the time of operation is congruity, in Nigeria, especially the Yala axis the bellows used for smelting and forging iron was of rubber-tube. In Nigeria, irons smelting was said to have started from East precisely the Awka people, why inyala today we have black smelter who forges hole, knife, rake, axe, and other agricultural tools, but traditional iron smelting is gradually going to extinction where nobody is willing to learn iron smelting work, as such agricultural implement is becoming very expensive as the people of Yala continue to buy from the Ezza people who few of them are engaging in smelting. This paper therefore x-ray the processes and materials involved or used in forging. Descriptives method of data collection were employed.