Talk:Pattern welding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Pattern welding is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed. | |||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
I am not sure that the technique described is exactly what I remember from a lecture I attended at MIT in the late 1960's, which was given by the British museum expert (I do not remember his name right now) who named the technique. It seems to me that one of the points was the all the layers did not have to be the same metal. I know that this is true for the Jappanese sword, but I seem to remember that the Viking examples used a harder metal in the center for the edge and a tougher metal in outside layers. I also believe that a prominent professor of metalurgy in the audience responded by describing some similar examples from an Asian tradition. Sorry this is all so vague, but I do not think that the definition of pattern welding should exclude using layers of dissimilar metals.
Are you sure you want allowance for different metals, and not just different alloys? As far as I know (although I know much less than I'd like about swordsmithing), pattern welding is exclusively a technique for ferrous materials (iron and some of the various steels). Peter Knutsen 06:06, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
As far as swordmaking goes, ONLY ferrous materials are used (different kinds of steel). Steel is the only metal alloy with the right combination of toughness and hardness for this purpose. A few metals are harder (I'm pretty sure molybdenum and tungsten are); I do not know that any metals are tougher.
What you've described above -- a tougher metal for the outside of the sword, harder metal for the inside actually refers to tougher STEEL and harder STEEL, not different metals. This, by the way, is not pattern welded.
Different metals are indeed pattern welded, but this is done for aesthetic reasons (used in jewelry) and this process (and its product) is known by the Japanese term "mokume". Tullie 22:20, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
"Today the Japanese katana is still considered by many to be the best sword ever produced" Can we please get a cite for this. These are classing weasel words. The Japanese smiths acheived great results with some pretty poor grade steel using only manaul labor (whereas Eurpoeans waited untill the water-wheel powered tilt hammer and bellows before attepting the huge amount of mechanical work that goes into pig iron). I also don't think pattern welding ended as described. The same techniques were still used to homenize pig iron into steel, but the all the layers were of the same alloy, so there is no visible patttern to bring out. 12.10.223.247 03:27, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
