Materials Science Forum Vol. 983

Abstract: Re-using technique of casting molds for “bronze mirrors with triangular rims and designs of divinities and animals” have been considered. Presence of the same carving decorative patterns have recognized because crack marks of the surface of mirror are comparable. Although this technique was applied for casting of bronze mirrors in ancient Japan, it was presence in the Linzi site in Early Han Dynasty in China.

Abstract: We excavated the Iron smelting furnaces, belonging to the Xiongnu Age (209BCE-155CE), in Mongolia. These furnaces can be divided into three types by structures. By the stratigraphic research and the radioactive carbon dating of charcoal, the transition from Type 3 to Type1 occurred from late BC1c. to around the beginning of AD1c.

Abstract: A synergic combination of neutron techniques was applied to characterize non-invasively the laminated structure of a set of ancient katana, part of the East Asian Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney. Neutron tomography, diffraction, residual stress and Bragg-edge transmission analyses were undertaken on samples of well-known origin, time period and authorship to create a reference database on the main manufacturing methods developed by Japanese swordsmiths. In the attempt to attribute mumei (no-signature) blades basing on a scientific analytical method rather than a stylistic analysis, data from the reference samples were benchmarked against the results obtained from the unknown blade to identify differences and commonalities in the production process.

Abstract: Iron furnaces first appeared in western Japan at the end of the Middle Yayoi period, around the 1st century BC. At the same time, iron tools and weapons started to be produced in western Japan using iron raw materials imported from the continent. We discovered the first ever iron furnace that had been constructed on the surface with a clay wall and bellows at Karakami Site, Iki Island, Nagasaki Prefecture. At this site, flat iron and fragments of casting iron were found along with a large quantity of stone tools related to the site. Given the different structure of the furnace on the surface with the bellows along with the lack of iron slag and cut iron fragments, it is probable that this type of furnace was used for the production of wrought iron by decarbonizing from cast iron. This decarbonizing technique of making wrought iron from cast iron has been successfully demonstrated through experimental archeology. When comparing the forms of flat iron found in northern Kyushu during the Yayoi period, the same forms of flat iron are only found in the Itoshima area or lower Onga River area, but not in the Fukuoka Plains. In addition, pottery from the Itoshima area and lower Onga River area of the Middle Yayoi period is found at Karakami Site, although pottery from the Fukuoka Plains has not been found at this site through petrologic analysis. Therefore, it is believed that flat iron from wrought iron ingots produced by decarbonizing from cast iron in furnaces on the surface was exported from Karakami Site to the Itoshima area or the lower Ongagawa area. On the other hand, there was no trading of wrought iron ingots between Karakami Site of Iki Island and the Na area of the Fukuoka Plains.

Abstract: In the presentation, previous archaeological achievements as well as analytical studies conducted on ironwork sites in Chungju are reviewed. In addition, the early iron production technology in the area can be characterized based on various evidences. Extensive ironworks were conducted at various sites concentrated especially in Chungju. Direct smelting was still the main technology until rather later on. Substantial amounts of tap slag and their analytical features support this idea. In addition, comprehensive studies as to the structure of furnaces and tuyeres used to do ironwork and their technical relationships also need to be discussed. Furthermore, smithing processes, which were mostly conducted at the smelting sites, were also described in detail so that the general ironworking process could be identified.

Abstract: Japanese swords have long been a source of fascination for metallographers both Japanese and Western, but most studies lean toward functional explanations of metallurgical features or description of how features correspond to historical and ethnographic accounts of production. At the same time, there is a long tradition of sword connoisseurship that through its visual and historical perspective offers insight about particular smiths and their traditions. In a metallographic examination of a 15^th century Japanese sword of the Bizen tradition, I take a chaîne opératoire approach and draw on aspects of both of the aforementioned scholarly traditions in order to better understand how late medieval Japanese sword smiths related to their materials and to their clientele. Based on my observations, I compare the apparent choices made by this sword’s smith to historical and ethnographic accounts of traditional sword production, and other published metallographic sections of Japanese swords. Then, I contextualize these choices in relation to contemporary production for export and for local consumption. Specifically, I will discuss possible reasons this sword’s metallurgical profile deviates from common practice according to twentieth and twenty-first century accounts of traditional Japanese sword smithing.

Abstract: In this paper we examined three bronze weapons with tin-rich surface decoration from the Eastern Zhou period: a sword (1966,0222.1) with a trellis pattern, a spearhead (1947,0712.426) with a hexagonal star pattern in the British Museum collections, and a sword (GT698) with a trellis pattern from a private collection. These weapons may have come from south eastern China, a region renowned for its weaponry production in the Eastern Zhou period, as both their styles and decorations are comparable to the sword of the Yue King Goujian and the spearhead of Wu King Fuchai, two of the most typical objects of this type. The manufacturing and surface tin-rich decoration techniques were investigated using microscopy, X-ray CT imaging, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that all the objects were made of high tin bronzes. The swords were made by casting a grip around the pre-cast blade and the pommel. The spearhead was an integral casting. The trellis pattern on the swords was probably produced by heating up a tin-rich paste applied to the surface and the thin hexagonal star decoration pattern on the spearhead was probably produced by brush painting with a mercury-tin amalgam followed by heating.

Abstract: Manganese oxide and metallic manganese have made a long and varied contribution to the production of iron and steel through the centuries, long before Sir Robert Hadfield’s alloy manganese steel first produced in 1882. Although quite well known empirically, this contribution has sometimes been misunderstood or misrepresented.The success of some of the early so-called ‘natural steels’ was the presence of manganese oxides in the iron ores used.Manganese oxide was already used as a flux from the early days of the production of crucible steel in Asia and it now appears that it was used as a flux from the inception of the otherwise very different later European crucible steel technologies. After the introduction of crucible steel making in Britain in the 18^th century, foreign competitors believed that the reason for the success of the processes used at Sheffield was a secret flux and studies on recently discovered 18^th century crucibles in Sheffield have shown that process was indeed fluxed with manganese oxide.The function of manganese in the later European crucible steel industry has been rather overshadowed and confused historically by the very different ‘Carburet of manganese’, a strange concoction, patented by Josiah Heath in 1839 added to iron or steel to purify the metal. At the time the chemistry of the process was misunderstood and many acrimonious and inaccurate claims were made, crucially confusing the very different functions of manganese oxide and manganese metal, overshadowing the part already played by manganese oxide for almost a century previously..Finally manganese and its salts played a crucial role in the Bessemer process of steel making.

Abstract: The invention of Chinese paktong was well-known in ancient China from at least the fourth century AD and is considered to be one of the most important inventions in the history of metallurgy, facilitating economic and material exchange in the West during the 17-19^th centuries. As recent investigations into the relevant archives of paktong show, it is recognized that the early industry of such metal had intimate connections with Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. Due to the recent year research on some ancient metallurgical remains of Chinese paktong in Yunnan, it shows that the slags in the sites of Mouding and Jiangyin were from the specific metallurgical process, probably by intentionally accumulating nickel with iron. Both sites were likely to be the places of mining or refining and roasting the ores, but the outcomes from them might be the roughly finished products.