If there are three things that fascinate me, they are industrial history, ancient warfare, and fire. Maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but they are all cool. Thus, it is no wonder that I am interested in the ancient process of turning rocks into swords and other useful implements. For some reason I’ve been thinking about it recently, and I think it should be possible to recreate.
I would like to avoid using too much modern technology or anything especially dangerous and get a product that, while not intended for use, would not be absurdly weak. Furthermore, the ore should be reasonably inexpensive. This rules out iron (melting point too high), gold and silver (weak and expensive), lead (somewhat toxic) and many other metals. It seems that the easiest metal to work with would be tin from cassiterite. Aluminum from bauxite should also be in the range of possibility. The ultimate would be to get copper from cuprite to mix with tin and create bronze, but the melting point of copper seems to be at the very upper limit of temperatures that can be produced by a natural charcoal fire without bellows or other equipment.
The process would start by smelting whichever of the above ores I decide to go with. All of them are compounds of the base metal with oxygen, so they should reduce easily in the presence of carbon. Thus, placing them in a charcoal fire should free the liquid base metal. There would undoubtedly be quite a lot of slag, but I believe it could be skimmed from the top or would remain solid.
The molten metal could then be poured into a sand cast (basically just wet sand with a shape dug out from it) and allowed to cool into ingots in the shape of long, thin, rectangular prisms. Once cool, portions of the ingot could be heated to below its melting point and hammered into an edged shape. A crossbar could be built into the sand mold or fashioned from some other material and attached later.
I am sure there are numerous complications that I have not thought of, and that a first attempt would likely be a spectacular failure. Still, I think it sounds like a fun project for a day or two. Who’s in?
I don’t think so!
Comment by Rachel — January 14, 2009 @ 1:43 am
I think you need to do is get someone who owned some land convert an existing structure (perhaps an old pot shed) into a smithy. The result being you’d be in the middle of nowhere and less likely to do anyone any damage.
Comment by Mykroft — January 14, 2009 @ 9:44 am
Heh, the old pot shed is a little too close to the edge of my property for this. We’re going to knock it down in the spring, I think. Good riddance. However, we do have a little fire-pit area in the backyard (well, a clearing in the woods really) that would be good for this kind of project. My wife may also be in the “I don’t think so” camp, but then again she does like weapons.
Comment by Chris — January 14, 2009 @ 10:18 am
Coincidentally i never noticed this before but apparently your blog supports http://en.gravatar.com/ which is kind of cool.
Comment by Mykroft — January 14, 2009 @ 10:28 am
A – maz – ing. This sounds incredible. I’m in. I’ve wanted to get into metal working for quite some time, and this sounds like an excellent way to start.
Also, I find it hilarious that this is the first response from Rachel I’ve ever seen. In fact, her comment was posted a mere 8 minutes after the Blogg entry went up.
Comment by Michaluk — January 14, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
Interesting, if you are going to be actually doing this keep me in the loop too. Also I know a blacksmith who might be able to give us some input and advice if you are actually going to do this.
Comment by John Grebe — January 14, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
Mykroft: I think doing any of this inside a structure would be a rather poor idea. At least to begin, I would rather be outside where ventilation is not a concern.
Michaluk: I had mentioned this idea to her a few hours before I posted, to which she responded with much laughter. When I wrote about it, I told her to go read it.
Comment by chadhogg — January 14, 2009 @ 4:16 pm