iron ignot?

[eftihis]

Hi! I bought this small metal ball from an antique shop in Chania, the owner inisted this was a ball from a small cannon.
The ball is very small, in one photo is near a bichaq to show the size.
But the ball is not round at all, and it was made this way!
Could it be a sort of "iron ignot" from the 19th century or earlier? I have seen "wootz iron" ignots of this size, but more round. Any ideas?

[Jens Nordlunde]

You may find the answer here, "Wootz ingots, where do they all come from?".

[Flavio]

Hey Jens, seems an X-file

[Ian]

The file Jens referred to is here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1410

[Jens Nordlunde]

Flavio, it almost is, but not quite.

Ian, thank you for helping me, for some reason or other, I could not copy the link, and so I gave the thread name instead.

Eftihis, I am no expert on ingots, to me it looks more like a mill ball, but I think those who know the difference should tell you. There is, however, one thing you can do, and that is to grind a bit of the surface away and try to etch the raw metal. This would give you an indication, as I understand it, but only an indication – good luck.

[Mark]

It looks like an ingot to me. They can be mixed up with milling balls, which are used to crush ore, but I think those are round.

Ann Feuerbach or Ric Furrer are the authorities on this stuff. Paging Drs. Feuerbach & Furrer ...

[Jens Nordlunde]

I may be wrong, but i think it was Jeff Pringle who pointed us in the direction of the mill balls.

[ariel]

As per Eftihis, this piece is not round at all: it is polygonal and looks as if it was purposefully made this way.
I see no reason for wootz ingots to be shaped like that and no explanation for a spontaneous formation of a complex geometrical feature. Some kind of weight measure?

[sabertasche]

I think weight measures are usually marked with whatever weight they are supposed to be. I suspect that unless you polish and etch it to see if there are cementite and pearlite particles you will never know.

Another fantasy theory my be that this really is a canon ball but for use against non Christians. Just a theory, of course.

greg

[Tim Simmons]

Grape shot or a lump of canister shot? It would not have to be well formed like a cannon ball?

[kronckew]

looks like it would work fine in an onager

[Richard Furrer]

Hello All,
Indeed it was Jeff who pointed the direction of the mill ball.
The few I have had chemically tesed which a friend had from India were high in chromium which places it outside the wootz realm.

Etching a window will show you if it is cast or not, but not much more.

I have a few more here which I have yet to test so I cannot comment on what ALL of them are.

Ric

[Mark]

Ric,

Are ingots (wootz or not) polygonal like this, at least sometimes? I recall seeing a couple facetted ones on Artzi's table at the Timonium show a few years back. Such a polygon would not, I think, work very well as a mill ball as it would have a reduced area of contact with the ore, and would not roll around as well. Whatever it is, I expect that the shape allows them to be packed more tightly, and/or stacked more stably.

[Jeff Pringle]

The grinding media used in ball mills can have a faceted appearance. When new, flat spots or points could increase impact pressure to improve the rate at which things got crushed in the mill, but I suspect they just naturally develop when the stuff you are crushing is partially harder than the shot.
Things to look for are asymmetric angles and numbers of facets and variations in shape and concavity/convexity from face to face, typically if something is made to be polygonal it will be regular, uniform, symmetric to a greater degree.
I don’t think ingots have ever had facets…

This ball from an old mine is 2.5” ~6.4 cm across: