Ancient Swords Made of Carbon Nanotubes 293
brian0918 writes "Nature reports that researchers at Dresden University believe that sabres from Damascus dating back to 900 AD were formed with help from carbon nanotubes. From the article: 'Sabres from Damascus are made from a type of steel called wootz. But the secret of the swords' manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century.' At high temperatures, impurities in the metal 'could have catalyzed the growth of nanotubes from carbon in the burning wood and leaves used to make the wootz, Paufler suggests. These tubes could then have filled with cementite to produce the wires in the patterned blades, he says.'"
Katana comparison (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Locking up Jefferson. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wootz? (Score:5, Interesting)
wish i could find that article now
The blades were very good compared ... (Score:1, Interesting)
The other telling thing is that the Muslim warriors were dismayed by the protection provided by European armor. A Damascus blade might be amazingly effective against silk handkerchiefs and human flesh but not so much against other pieces of metal.
Stephenson (Score:4, Interesting)
Wasn't the riddle of steel solved? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or has their worked been made suspect or not confirmed?
Re:Katana comparison (Score:5, Interesting)
My master would be a better judge than I am. He's also a swordsman. One of us is better at blacksmithing (He did it professionally for quite some time and used to teach at a school) and the other is generally a better swordsman (though he'd say that was him, we both know better).
I started learning to work steel because I wanted to make my own weapons (I've trained martially since I was about 6 and got my first sword at 10). Unfortunately, things happened which caused me to stop that pursuit for the moment.
While I was there, I got to use a type of forge setup which is basically only found in a few places in the world and got to meet a lot of interesting people including a master gunsmith whose work is in the Smithsonian. It was a real trip.
Cutting a sword (Score:4, Interesting)
Hard to believe (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:informative (Score:5, Interesting)
As the Slashdot Faq says: Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass.
If you want to give someone Karma and the post doesn't fit into the Insightful or Interesting category, use +1 Underrated.
Mercury Ali (Score:1, Interesting)
"Watered steel-blade, the world perfection calls,
Drunk with
the viper poison foes appals,
Cuts lively, burns the blood whene'er it falls;
And picks up
gems from pave of marble halls;"
Re:Stephenson (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Scientific American Version 1.0 (Score:4, Interesting)
No doubt any competent blacksmith learned to be equally accurate.
Re:Katana comparison (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:WTF are you talking about? (Score:2, Interesting)
So, from what I understand, we already know how to recreate the original style of Damascus steel aka wootz.
We indeed do. Some goldsmiths can make rings out of Damascus steel. The rings look pretty neat and they are superstrong. You can get different kind of patterns to the rings too.
I heard a story where a man had something really heavy drop on his fingers at work. It would've been the end of that hand, but... he had a ring of Damascus steel on some finger (I'd say the biggest finger, but can't remember details), the ring didn't deform and kept the weight well. The guy ended up keeping his fingers intact.
Re:interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
I just get the feeling that this amazing skill would have been a guarded secret, probably held by people who couldn't write effectively (if they understoof the chemistry at all, or weather it would have just been a recipe) and passed down through an apprentice. Which was all very well and good until there was a little too much competition and Wootz guys monopoly was under threat or he was killed before he could pass on his secret.
No all patents are bad - just software ones.
Re:wootz? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:interesting... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one of the two schools of information, the "you're not cleared for that" thought that information was a powerful weapon. The other is the "spread the word" thought that information must be shared so that the community could benefit and that the information couldn't be lost. Sometimes it's better to play with your cards close to your chest, and other times it's better to play with open cards so that everybody can profit.
One of the purposes of patents was to counter the need for trade secrets, to ensure compensation for the inventor so that he would reveal his invention to the general public. The spirit was that anybody could build make the invention as long as they paid the inventor a fee.
Copyright is another animal entirely. If copyright had said that anybody could copy if they compensated the author/artist, and not had such long lock-in times, I think we wouldn't be having these battles with music and film comglomerates.
The summary is badly wrong (Score:2, Interesting)
To further muddy the waters about Damascus steel.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:interesting... (Score:1, Interesting)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103442/ [imdb.com]
An ancient 747 was discovered in 1992 predating modern flight a thousand years before the Wright Brothers ever flew.
If you fold metal several thousand times by heating it to the point where it's flexible then striking and folding it with a hammer you create carbon nanotubes.
Japanese master sword maker takes a year and half a dozen assistants to create a sword that cuts through a Talamanca Damascus blade like a tongue depressor slices through room temperature butter. News at 11!
Ren Faires (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the only news here is that "scientists apply the term 'nanotubes' to an ancient process that was rediscovered several decades ago."
I got a kick out of Daniel as I asked about the no-breakage/replacement guarantee.
Me: So if Bubba Redneck ticks me off, I hack into his truck's engine block and the blade breaks, you'll replace it?
Daniel: I doubt it would break, but if it does, yeah, we'll replace it.
I guess it's comforting that science and the media confirms something we Ren Faire geeks have known for years: ancient science is better, and modern science is only rediscovering what has been lost.
Clichés Market (Score:3, Interesting)
Correction. (Score:3, Interesting)
False. I have been present personally during demonstrations which included creating and testing pattern-welded blades. Comparisons were made to similarly forged and tempered billets and the layered metal took more force to deform and more force to break. You can overforge the steel, you can thin out the layers too much, you can get large or non-carboniferous inclusions, all of which will result in a flawed or brittle blade, but properly forged pattern-welded steel is stronger and stiffer than plain hammered metal of the same type. This is presumably because of the carbon structures that are created during the welding and hammering out; most smiths will need to use a coal fire rather than a gas forge (I've heard that super-duper experts can pattern-weld with gas and carbon-loaded fluxes, but I've never seen anyone do it successfully).
You are overhyping Japanese swordcraft at bit, also - certainly Japanese blades and bladesmiths deserve their reputation, but there's nothing magical about their particular form of pattern-welding, and for a big European-type like me a Viking pattern-welded blade might be more useful and appropriate. The Norse cable-welded core does not create the weak flanks that characterize the japanese method; Miyamoto Musashi was famous for smashing katanas with a wooden sword, but he wouldn't have been able to do it to a Viking longsword.