Iron sharpens iron

[MattBower]

"Sharpens" does not necessarily mean "abrades." I still wonder if this was a reference to work hardening.

[fciron]

On 11/10/2010 at 5:11 PM, MattBower said:

"Sharpens" does not necessarily mean "abrades." I still wonder if this was a reference to work hardening.

Smiths in Africa still work harden the edges of their blades, scythes in America were work hardened as part of the sharpening process right up into the twentieth century. Early iron producers very likely used work hardening rather than quenching from hot, just like their African descendants. This has been mentioned a couple of times but not pursued.

 

[Don A]

Check this out:

sharpening-scythe by hammer and stone

[Lucas]

Something to remember in line with everybody mentioning that it was Iron, not steel. This technology of smelting was possessed almost solely by the Philistines in the ancient near east. It was not until the reign of Saul and David that Israel gained the technology of smelting iron from the Philistines (Scholars tend to think that David actually stole it when we was a fugitive from Saul living in a Philistine town raiding other Philistine towns). Just a fun bit of history that goes with this topic.

[wolfshieldrx]

My mother-in-law had one of the old style wood fired cook-stoves in her kitchen. Used it for heat in the winter, and still cooked on it some too even though she had an electric stove. Anyway, just to make a short story long...I have seen her many times touch up the blade of one of her kitchen knives by honing it on the rounded edge of the cast-iron stove-top. Always thought that was pretty cool. bart