folded steel?

Folding?

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:5d8ac833-9c5e-4330-a07a-20db69035d49 @r15g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

For what?

For swords?

It was better than the other primitive processes available before we learned how to melt, alloy and analyze steel.

When making "iron" by the "bloom" method a long time ago, the amount of carbon that got into the iron was often quite variable. The process of squeezing the slag out of the bloom (a mixture of iron particles and slag), to make all those iron particles stick together to produce usable iron involved folding the metal over and forge welding the folds together. They could ascertain that some parts of the bloom contained more carbon than other parts. By stacking up layers of the low carbon and high carbon pieces, welding (which thins and lengthens the work) folding, over and over makes the individual layers thinner and thinner. As this all occurs, carbon migrates from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. I am told that by the time the individual layers get to about 0.003 inches thick, the carbon concentration had evened out through the whole piece. Now you have a homongeneous piece of steel for your sword or axe or whatever. We see a lot of this folding and welding going on where they leave the layers thicker on purpose. They use alloys that have differing color characteristics that show up when the surface is etched. Damascus. I'm not a knife maker, so please don't flame me.

Pete Stanaitis

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snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Pete, remember I was asking about that big anvil with letter "V" on it. I won it in auction and will pick up in a few weeks (military is hard to deal with)

Jim Wilkins wrote in news:016aaac0-c63b-4645-9fe7- snipped-for-privacy@g17g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

The OP's question was not limited to blades.

For knives, swords, and similar cutting implements the laminations offer several advantages over homogeneous metal: 1. A central core metal can be surrounded by another with different properties. 2. With the laminations running parallel to the spine of the blade, the blade will retain its edge longer although sharpening may take longer. 3. Aesthetics.

For other purposes, however, laminations can weaken rather than strengthen the object made when compared to homogeneous metal.

That's why I asked the question.

Clock springs motivated the advance to crucible steel.