DARC Iron, not Dark Ages

Steve Muhlberger has an interesting post about the Dark Ages Re-creation Company (DARC), which got together to smelt iron with early medieval techniques. I find the whole "Dark Ages" thing a little tiresome (re-creators, more than anyone else, should understand that the "Dark Ages" weren't so dark), but I guess VARC (*Viking Age Re-creation Company) would sound a little too much like a swear word from a cheesy B science fiction flick.

Grousing about the name aside, the re-creation appears to have been more experiment than roleplay. I'm generally not too interested in the history side of medieval studies, but this looks pretty cool. Plus, in the image Muhlberger posts, the guys look like Tolkienian dwarves in plaid!