ThomasPowers Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 The interesting thing is that most bloomery furnaces can produce anything from a relatively zero carbon iron, through high carbon steels and even cast iron. Sometimes the bloomery might produce all three in a very inhomogeneous mess. This is why the Japanese swordsmith evaluates the metal produced by the tatara and builds up billets of different carbon contents. This, of course was an issue in earlier times---you forge a sword one day and it's soft another day and you get one that shatters in quench or burns at a lower temp. Took a long while to figure out how to effectively work higher carbon steels---till they did figure it out Not quench hardening was a lot safer. Not only blades, when looking at European Armour over time, the size of the plates got larger and larger until they started using medium to high carbon steels and hardening them by quenching---then the plate size dropped to much smaller ones easier to work and heat treat. As the technology advanced the plate size went back up. (The Knight and the Blast Furnace, The Royal Armories at Greenwich a History of their Technology; Alan Williams.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 13, 2021 Author Share Posted January 13, 2021 Thank you so much, everyone! Wikipedia can be accurate for some things and inaccurate for others. My teachers argue about it all the time at school. Thank you Mr. Monsson, I'll be sure to include you in my sources. I'll be back soon with my mark; I'll be passing my paper in momentarily. Wish me luck! -Chris Sorry I missed you, Thomas. I'll have to do some more reading on Japanese swordsmiths, they definitely knew their stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 13, 2021 Author Share Posted January 13, 2021 Is there anywhere to hear the Blacksmiths' song, George? From the lyrics it seems like it would sound amazing. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Chris: Did you search, "The Blacksmith Song"? I got several pages in lots of languages in a couple seconds. This is from the first row. Click Here Sorry about the size of the link, Tinyurl isn't working for me today. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Frosty, you can edit a link to change the text that displays. Open the comment in Edit, right click on the link, and make your changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 14, 2021 Author Share Posted January 14, 2021 I had searched for it, but I didn't find anything... Maybe I'm just bad at searching for things... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 I don't see way to change it to a decent length link or say a symbol or(?) in edit. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 See How to edit a link. (And my instructions above were a bit off; my apologies.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 On 1/13/2021 at 7:31 AM, Chris the Chicken Smith said: Is there anywhere to hear the Blacksmiths' song, THis from Frosty's link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHvUEeEE6Q4&feature=emb_logo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Also, listen to "Cold Iron" by Rudyard Kipling as sung by Leslie Fish at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 Cold Iron is my favourite poem! It’s beautiful. I was just on my way back to listen to “our” song. I’ve added “by hammer and hand all arts do stand” to the end of my paper, then passed it in... fingers crossed! Thanks again for all of your knowledge and experience! I’ll use this as my question asking thread until it becomes obsolete and I need to make a new one... and I’ll be sure to post my mark back here. I’ll be back in a few minutes with my opinion of the song. Chris That song isn’t bad, but not George’s version... the lyrics sound so majestic... “To the mem’ry of Vulcan our voices we’ll raise, May he and his sons be revered thro’ the land; May they thrive root and branch, and enjoy happy days For by Hammer and Hand all arts do stand.” it’s from Worshipful Blacksmiths’ Company, as I’m sure you know. https://blacksmithscompany.co.uk/history/the-blacksmiths-song/ It also says this... I thought there would be a recording somewhere... ”The Blacksmiths' Song was composed by a Past Prime Warden, Moses Kipling, in 1828; it is sung every year at the Company Banquet in Mansion House” I’ve listened to some others, as well... they’re all pretty good, just not talking about Vulcan and such... -Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Sounds like a drinking song to me and rather similar to others from that period. In the SCA a lot of R Kipling's songs have been put to music; I always found the Picts Song to be a great blade filing song, especially sitting around a campfire on a dark night... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 It does sound like a drinking song, now that you mention it... Thanks, Thomas. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 this was fun.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris the Chicken Smith Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 To read through, you mean, JLP? Probably was. I should get a mark by the end of next week. Stay tuned! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritchel Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Too funny”, I guess some reads are more humor than others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 The thread was fun on the read thru.. Back 30+ years ago, I submitted a paper on nearly the same topic.. I think I named the paper.. Iron in the early age. Information today is much more indepth with a lot more information and people also knowing more about it. I did Like many things in the thread.. I like that Thomas mentioned iron and steel were produced pretty much from the get go in Africa vs others that were using Bronze. What did you get for a Grade?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 This is too late for Chris' paper but I was unpacking books and found one that would have been a good source for him. It is one of the old Time-Life books, Emergence of Man Series, Knauth, Percy, The Metalsmiths, 1974, Time-Life Books. It is probably available through one of the used books websites. If you can pick it up I recommend it. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Available used through Amazon for $12.83 + shipping. From the receipt in my copy I paid $7.95 in 1993, worth $14.24 today. So, Amazon is a better deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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