Another score from my mom's collection.
Bronze sword.
- Thread starter Jscb1b
- Start date
No idea. I tried reverse searching it with different results. One site said it is Greek, one said Chinese, and one said Luristan. I've looked at Christie's auction house too. My mom's husband bought it before they got together. He has passed so I can't ask him. If you have any ideas about what to try, I would appreciate them.
Lots of these online…
I remember them from my trips to Hong Kong, when the Jade Market was still an interesting place to windowshop.
All repros for the tourists.
Metallurgical Analysis at your local university would probably be your best bet.
I remember them from my trips to Hong Kong, when the Jade Market was still an interesting place to windowshop.
All repros for the tourists.
Metallurgical Analysis at your local university would probably be your best bet.
They can tell you which mine the copper came from, maybe the tin too.
If it is original and period, it is spectacular.
If reproduction, it is still really cool!
Nice find!
Sirhr
If reproduction, it is still really cool!
Nice find!
Sirhr
A Special Ancient Bronze Sword and Its Possible Manufacturing Technique from Materials Science Analysis - PMC
In this study, it was found that an ancient bronze sword had special microstructures, i.e., a tin (Sn)-rich layer (Sn: 38.51 wt.%), that was around 0.1–0.3 mm in thickness in the bronze substrate (Sn: 18.57 wt.%). This sword was unearthed from the ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Thought you might find this interesting.
Caution:
The authors are, however, Chinese - judging by the jingoist white trash mindset that is prevalent, this might ruffle some feathers.
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A Special Ancient Bronze Sword and Its Possible Manufacturing Technique from Materials Science Analysis - PMC
In this study, it was found that an ancient bronze sword had special microstructures, i.e., a tin (Sn)-rich layer (Sn: 38.51 wt.%), that was around 0.1–0.3 mm in thickness in the bronze substrate (Sn: 18.57 wt.%). This sword was unearthed from the ...
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Thought you might find this interesting.
Caution:
The authors are, however, Chinese - judging by the jingoist white trash mindset that is prevalent, this might ruffle some feathers.
Interesting article, especially the level of tinning expertise they had! I had not thought of the importance of tinning, but to get the bronze alloys to adhere when casting, it would be critical! That they were doing this in the 400’s is fascinating. This is what is so much fun about arcane academic papers!!!
Though not as advanced as the folding techniques of the Japanese (much later anyway) this does use a very similar principle of combining brittle, hard sharpenable edges with a spine that would be flexible slough to keep the sword from shattering. Way earlier than I’d assumed.
Military technology almost always outpaces civilian technology because the losing side dies!
So innovation is extra critical!
Jscb: There are handheld spectrometers out there that are very fast and non-destructive for checking out the age of the metal. Museums, colleges, even some manufacturing places have them. So may be easy enough to get a spectral analysis that will tell you if the bronze on your sword is old or new.
Cheers!
Sirhr
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Keep that to the Bear Pit where it belongs. When it comes to vintage, the only problem we have with the Chinese is the quality of the "firearms" they produced during their 20-year civil war.
