Not sure if this really fits here or not, but here goes:
I'm writing a Science Fiction story where my characters recently encountered an Early-to-Mid Iron Age society. The lead characters were attacked by locals wielding mostly steel swords and spears. One of the spears, however, easily penetrated the chest plate armor of one of lead characters.
My explanation is that instead of the copper or steel spears that they seem to be, they're actually a steel/tungsten alloy with a copper coating, making them Armor Piercing spears.
Since Iron melts around 1500 C and tungsten melts around 3000 C and (I believe) isn't the easiest to work with, I was going to use it as proof that someone has been either supplying the locals with advanced arms, or teaching them how to make them themselves.
I already know that the locals were taught how to make steel. (before that they just used simple iron) Is Hardened Steel a much bigger jump, or is it no big deal? I'm not sure when Earth metal workers first discovered ways to make steel even stronger.
I was thinking that a village forge could make steel with no problem, but adding tungsten would require more of a professional foundry/refinery to do it.
What do you think?
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24,011 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 01 35
It seems plausible. There was a variety of steel known as Wootz steel that was created around 300 B.C. in India, which contained traces of Tungstun. It would eventually lead to Damascus steel. Wootz steel was said to be exceptionally hard and sharp.
----------"Bearing ourselves humbly before God ... we await undismayed the impending assault ... be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parlay; we may show mercy – we shall ask for none." ~ Winston Churchill, July 1940
46,028 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 02 30
Ah, yes, Damascus Steel. Thanks!
55,972 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 05 12
Cholma,
I'm not an expert on metals by any means, but the secret to making stronger steel really is in the temperatures required. My information is that it wasn't until around 500 AD in Europe that hard coal was used to fire forges which was needed to get the temperatures up to that required to work tungsten steel. One story I read had the lead character use meteoric iron that had tungsten with it already and it took most of the novel for him to begin to smelt the metal to create a super-strong sword.
Do remember, at first steel was made by smiths folding iron over and over and pounding it thin to bond the iron to form sheets of steel. Long swords, for example were many tiny blocks of iron taken from the melt and forged together, then flattened and folded many times.
I'd say that the use of this steel in your book easily could have been "induced technology" instead of native technology...although it's not "proof" by any means.
46,028 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 02 53
The temperatures is what caught my attention as well. Iron melts around 1,500 C, while Tungsten has a 3,000 C melting point. While I know a village forge would have no problem smelting Iron, I didn't think they could do that with Tungsten. I was thinking a more specially built smelter/refinery would be needed.
I've been reading up on Damascus Steel, and while it's exact production is unknown, it seems to owe its uniqueness to a special forging process plus the use of a rare ore that came from India at the time. Seeing as how it was rare in our history, and not commonly duplicated was known, I'm going to discount that as unlikely in my story, although I may have a character bring it up.
From what you said, it sounds like a village forge could do it, but would probably have to be enclosed forge, (like a giant stone oven perhaps?) as opposed to the more common small open-air one. I'm now recalling forges with large bellows attached to them.