Hi Ann,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann Feuerbach
Sorry to be a pain, but where in the book do they mention a historical crucible steel blade with martensite? I have had a look and can not find it. Plus is GT Orbach's one from replication or an historical object? I remember doing a survey of all known published historical crucible steel objects, and I do not remember any with martensite, but I could have missed it.  .
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First I must thank Frank for his correction and the supplementary links.
I found that link late in the night and read it too hastily. The authors were most certainly not by V&P - My mistake, for which I apologize.
In my haste, I did not read the work in full, just did a global search for the words `quench' and `Martensite'. However, it appears to me that the author links the hardening of Wootz with quenching and tempering, but I add, none too clearly for me, especially when we get to Pg 87.
On page 29/90 under the heading of Steel Processing: Reference to Indians smiths quenching swords into banana trees and worse
Pg 86/90: Reference to work by Kochman and colleagues in which a historical blade was examined for microstructure and bits of Martensite were found. The full article can be read here:
http://www.crystalresearch.com/crt/ab40/905_a.pdf
I found it interesting that: a) Martensite was formed in the 1st place, as this usually requires quenching of some sort, b) that there appears to be little Cementite near the very edge and c) the rather obtuse angle of the edge, which suggests something or another.
Pg 87/90: Elaboration on the idea of high carbon Martensite decomposing.
Cheers
Chris