Primitive Glassmaking (Creating Glass from Sand)

Have you ever wondered what the secret is to making glass from scratch? Today I'm teaching you about the origin, the components of glass, and how to create glass STRAIGHT from sand using primitive technology.

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▼ Credits ▼
Created and Hosted by Andy George
Co-Hosted and Assistance by Lauren Lexvold
Camera and Cinematography by Daniel Garritsen
Primary Editing by Joseph Knox-Carr

[mrpenisman]

Just imagine the neighbors going "Dammit! Honey the neighbors being a caveman again"

[avoirdupois]

I love the fact that Andy shows all of his failures. It makes it clear that this kind of technological advance is difficult.

[declankim]

I wonder how long until he makes a fuse lock musket. He has almost all the materials he needs, besides potassium nitrate I think

[beetrootmcguillicuddy]

"FISH?"
When sieging a castle you want to bring a herd of pigs with you. When sapping the walls you add the pigs to the fire which raises the temperature high enough to make the earth above become brittle and collapse the wall above it. Dried oily fish have been used as a fuel by many people and continued into relatively recent times in the form of a ferry that once crossed Lake Michigan fueled by dried sturgeon. Maybe the original artist is suggesting that oily fish will help bring a high stable heat.

[bobo]

Thank you for showing how hard and tedious it was to live before modern tech

Your dedication to hands on trying out your explorations is TRULY AMAZING admirable

[saikyawthanhtay]

The real dr. Stone who would survive the reverse

[zachstufflebeam]

I couldn't tell for sure, did you add straw to your clay when making bricks? That's important. Some kind of fibrous plant material, such as straw, grass, etc, it adds a lot of strength to the bricks.

[Rhen]

The bricks need a lot of work it seems. As other people have mentioned they probably could use less water to reduce deformation. A tip I saw on primative technology was to use wood ash with water on the brick mold to allow it to slide out more easily, but also being dryer would allow it to slip out more easily too (also using wood ash on the floor to prevent it from sticking). I believe the design of your kiln was also pretty flawed, if you're using rectangular bricks you should be building a square kiln (make sure to make square bricks too for end pieces). If you need to make a cylindrical shaped kiln you should be using trapezoidal bricks, where the interior angles are 75 and 105 degrees respectively (for a 12 sided circle).

One more thing you missed is the critical step of firing the bricks (you can test to see if they're fired by putting them in water to see if they dissolve, if they dissolve then they weren't properly fired). When you put them around the fireplace all that did was dry them, which isn't bad but it doesn't make them fired; they should glow orange/red or be close to glowing.

I've never made bricks in my life so feel free to disregard all of what i said, but there's lots of videos about how to do this stuff on youtube (e.g. primative technology)

[TheTylerJWalker]

Soooo everything you are doing has been a HUGE part of my art practice. History, anthropology, materials science, applied vs. Theoretical science. Experimentation. I have worked in just about every facet of the arts and commercial/industrial fields in pursuit of this same goal. I LOVE WHAT YOU ARE DOING. I would LOVE to contribute any experience or knowledge I have developed to help you you out.

[easternhills]

Once again, the HTME team has put an insane amount of work for one video! The love you guys have for this stuff is infectious haha

[rextheroyalist]

Despite being lower-tech, wooden molds generally make for smoother, more consistent bricks. Great video

[furrypersoon]

Omg, it’s a rare specimen of the Iron Age infrared thermometer!

[chesterbaconga]

Try watching the OG PRIMITIVE TECHNOLOGY to make better bricks and kiln/oven

[ezeee]

This should be titled “different ways to fail at making glass”

[thefriendlymadman]

Meet how to make everything, my irl locked Ultimate Ironman. After recently making a YouTube channel I decided to up the ante to forge my own journey from scratch. No buying, no helping making everything for myself. All leading up to eventually taking on one of lifes biggest challenges: building a Ford escort.

[NoahChrysler]

Andy your journey has been extremely inspiring to me. The amount of time and sheer will required to make these videos is dumbfounding.

I’ve been a fan since your first video when you made a sandwich from scratch. It’s been amazing to see you become an expert in so many areas. I remember your first attempt at glass, and your second attempt, and every attempt after that.

I remember you being super discouraged after your first attempt. But as you spoke to more experts and learned how difficult it was to actually make it successfully, each failure was less of a blow. And then eventually after a million attempts, you actually did it.

What’s even more impressive to me is watching you grow this brand and build this company. I don’t think the average person understand the logistical spiderweb that has to come together to produce each one of these videos. And more than that, we never really see you become angry or bitter when something doesn’t work out. Every level of this channel is done as ethically as possible.

Your tenacity, your patience, and your integrity are all extremely inspiring to me. You’re a modern day role model to me and a lot of your viewers. Thanks for doing what you do.

[wickideazy]

Shoutout to Annalise :) first her and now Lauren doing all the grunt work, they da real MVPs

[LittleDergon]

I'm pretty sure the reason your bricks shrank and warped so much was because the mixture was too wet to begin with. To make good form bricks the clay should be a similar consistency to fimo or other oven hardening clays- you should be able to roll it into a ball and it stay a ball

[BlueBobbin]

She worked with cement, made bricks AND still has great nails!! RESPECT!!

[vladm]

Glass flutes were discovered in egypt and other desert regions whenever lighting pierced through the sands. Glass has always been around. I imagine someone collecting a glass flute after lighting striking the ground. Their minds must have made the connection between heat and sand producing glass.