Re: Steel tech and weapons

[Wright Frazier <khelek@ns1.cioe.com>]

In deferrance to your MSE studies, I disagree.  When I think of 'steel' I don't
think of the stuff used in battle ships, etc..  I think of iron with carbon
added.  This stuff dates back over a thousand years.  Iron was used first
used by the Hittites some 3,000 years ago, and it really caught on with the
Romans who used it for steel(this is the late empire(200-300 AD), before that
they mainly used a better bronze than steel).  The Celts even had steel weapons,
it was pattern welded iron with carbon and other metals added to it for strength.
Iron mainly got used in armour after the romans(more ductile for easier mail),
but for weapons, it was steel(when you are trying to kill the fool, use the
very best).  Steel really came into use as a general war material with the
advent of plate armour(1400's), and the stories of the stuff being near
impenetrable by a hand held weapon are very true(that is why the long sword
disappeared and the bastard and two handed swords appeared).  When I say
steel, I'm not talking the modern stuff, I'm talking middle ages steel.

Wright


> In response to the hub-bub about steel, the problem with steel isn't the
> working of it, but the making of it.  The planet hasn't even developed
> coke technology, which is essential to steel production, and I would
> attribute this to the planet's lack of dried up swamp land.  Steel
> production is the tricky part, and for the most part wasn't as we know it
> until the first world war, and yielded cool new ways to kill eachother.
> If someone wanted to have a group of super artisans like the Japanese
> swordsmiths, who overcame their technological limitations I could back
> that.  Steel as a raw material is hundreds of years away though.
> 
>