JimsShip Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Rare ingots of "Orichalcum" have been recovered from a ship that sunk 2,600 years ago off the coast of Sicily! I wonder how it forges? http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/atlantis-legendary-metal-found-in-shipwreck-150106.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 I am sure that some of the metal will be chemically tested to figure out the exact composition. I find it amazing that they were able to process and cast these ingots in their era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 "Analyzed with X-ray fluorescence by Dario Panetta, of TQ - Tecnologies for Quality, the 39 ingots turned to be an alloy made with 75-80 percent copper, 15-20 percent zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron." Apparently, it was the substitution of zinc for lead or tin that made it different than anything else available at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Historically zinc was a difficult metal to refine; the temp needed to refine it was above the boiling point of the metal so what you got was metal vapour which would then combine back with oxygen leaving you back at square 1. So early uses were done by mixing the zinc ore with molten copper and hoping the copper picked up enough. Even as late as the renaissance this method was used---Biringuccio has a chapter on "colouring copper" using this method in his "Pirotechnia", 1540. India pioneered a method of smelting zinc by doing it in alembics and piping the zinc vapour into an oxygen free area where it could cool forming an extremely fine zinc powder that then could be melted using regular techniques and cast into zinc ingots. "Metal Technology in Medieval India" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Thanks for that bit of history Thomas. Always fascinating how things were done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divermike Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 The myth was that the metal was mined, and only found in Atlantis, great way to keep a secret eh? Just proves civilisations progress and technology goes much further into antiquity than modern historians are willing to admit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 so essentially it is dirty Brass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 As far as urban legends go ask a number of modern people how much a medieval battle sword weighed and see what answers you get! (Remember 13th Warrior, when the protagonist couldn't lift and swing one of the swords? That sword would have weighed about 2.5 pounds. So half the weight of a good sack of sugar.... and the method he used to lighten it would have removed the hardened edge leaving softer steel to make his "improved" sword. We're still passing along a lot of misinformation in our modern world.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 As true as it gets Thomas. Of course anyone who believes what they see in movies, TV, etc. fall into a category named by a Mr. Barnum. I finally had to stop commenting about the "blacksmith" holding a top swage upside down as a hammer, Deb was getting tired of hearing it and wouldn't share the popcorn if I did. I've been pleasantly surprised by museum curators positive response when I pointed out mistakes in their blacksmith displays. More than once I've been given the run to arrange the display and a life membership. It does make me happy that museum folk actually care about accuracy in their displays. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 How about all the sleeping beauty tales where they show a "modern" spinning wheel with an orifice instead of the spindle she is supposed to prick her finger on? That one gets my wife wound up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divermike Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 And the fact that every blacksmith quenches everyhting he works on, not this boy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Having had my own learning experiences I tend to not have water in the smithy if I will be working higher carbon alloys. For some reason they tend to be like lemmings and try to throw themselves in the water all on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Roy Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Would someone let me know if they find on one of these sunken wrecks some ingots of unobtainium; very rare! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 dang I'd wish you had told me sooner, I've been diving on Victorio Peak for the lost galleons of the 1715 treasure fleet out here and tossing the unobtanium away to get to the adamantium... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divermike Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I pulled a whichakoozie rod and a finnegnal pin off a wreck in Belize, I made a drywall stretcher out of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 How about all the sleeping beauty tales where they show a "modern" spinning wheel with an orifice instead of the spindle she is supposed to prick her finger on? That one gets my wife wound up! Thomas! Are you trying to mess me up or get me in trouble with Admin?! You used two almost unresistable words in conjunction in one sentence. It's a good thing I have to get up in a couple seconds and start dinner or I'd be sore tempted to smith a snappy reply concerning the use of orifice and what a spindle did to the maid's finger in the same sentence. WHEW! Dodged that one. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Du7ch Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 dang I'd wish you had told me sooner, I've been diving on Victorio Peak for the lost galleons of the 1715 treasure fleet out here and tossing the unobtanium away to get to the adamantium... Better than going after the lost Padres mine! I've found the general area of 2 separate mines by that name... one in Texas and one just west of Las cruces! One is supposedly filed with silver bars and the other with gold bars... our Sierra Ladrones conversation had me digging into local legend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 when you find them bring over a couple of bars and I'll show you hot forging of silver and gold---you can just toss them on the scrap pile when we are done with them... Probably a lot of stuff along the old camino real what with the apache raids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wow! As a transplanted Missourian and approaching "The Age of Curmudgeons", I must chide professor Powers for (deliberately, I think) fostering the myth of suicidal lemmings and then compounding his sin with tales of suicidal high carbon steels! Surely he is aware that the suicidal lemmings are a Disney invention, NOT a natural phenomena! Here in the "show me" State, high carbon steels do NOT seek water of their own volition! I always keep a pail of water near my forge, for sprinkling, selective quenching and safety purposes. A handy pail of cool water is great first aid for a burn! Especially if applied IMMEDIATELY! I have noted no natural migration of my high carbon steels (or, indeed of ANY metals) toward that pail of water! Just so that you know, professor Powers, when next I venture into that high desert country where you range, I will expect to discuss this in depth with you, preferably at one of the rare oases in the area where good craft beers spring from the taps like water! Methinks I may need something to wet my whistle before this discussion can be properly concluded! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 My I commend "The Hoppy Monk" to your oasis researches in the western El Paso area? I am very happy that you have sourced hydrophobic steel; in my experience it is a rare breed as the carbon content increases. As we also don't suffer from things like vegetation out here, cooling items by laying them on the desert tends to work well. As for your needs vis a vis self quenching please review the fundamental tenet of blacksmithing: "You hold the cold end and hit the hot end---and get it right next time!" Or perhaps your steel is not hydrophobic as much as Bigfootnampaphillic in which good care taken as to tongs to wrestle the metal away from your flesh is suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.