10-20-2003, 08:22 PM
Hi,
I found the first one ( http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords.htm ) quite interesting while the second was much more typical of what I'd seen everywhere on the net.
As to "1075 steel is the nearest steel you can come to the historical steels", it doesn't come near at all. Modern steel is *melted* in a furnace. In fluid form, the ingredients mix quite well, the resulting grain structure is very fine and the material is extremely homogeneous. Your own link ( http://www.templ.net/indexe.php?id=15a ) shows how different this material is from the historical. Note that the historical "steel" was never melted (that ability did not exist). That the grain structure is very coarse (see http://www.templ.net/pics/v_a10av.jpg ).
The fact is that most historical blades were not made from a single piece of material, because the technology to make a single material with all the desired properties did not exist. Thus, the blades were a composite work. No modern material can actually reproduce that work. Only people working in the traditional manner can reproduce the historical blades (and all their faults and failings) at all accurately.
The difference is extremely significant. It is the difference, for instance, between a woven fabric and one made from a monolayer of plastic.
--Pete
I found the first one ( http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords.htm ) quite interesting while the second was much more typical of what I'd seen everywhere on the net.
As to "1075 steel is the nearest steel you can come to the historical steels", it doesn't come near at all. Modern steel is *melted* in a furnace. In fluid form, the ingredients mix quite well, the resulting grain structure is very fine and the material is extremely homogeneous. Your own link ( http://www.templ.net/indexe.php?id=15a ) shows how different this material is from the historical. Note that the historical "steel" was never melted (that ability did not exist). That the grain structure is very coarse (see http://www.templ.net/pics/v_a10av.jpg ).
The fact is that most historical blades were not made from a single piece of material, because the technology to make a single material with all the desired properties did not exist. Thus, the blades were a composite work. No modern material can actually reproduce that work. Only people working in the traditional manner can reproduce the historical blades (and all their faults and failings) at all accurately.
The difference is extremely significant. It is the difference, for instance, between a woven fabric and one made from a monolayer of plastic.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?