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.
Awesome!…
They should be able to recommend some nondestructive form of testing, if there’s any doubt from their cursory examination.
Perhaps the examination would be enough.
Also, a lot of coin shops/pawn shops that deal with Gould and Silver will have analyzers.
The technology now is so inexpensive that what used to take an atomic physics laboratory can now be done with a device not much bigger than an Automotive multimeter!
That said, not sure how well advanced the inexpensive tools are for identifying age. But what used to be a major production is now quick and inexpensive.
Can’t wait to hear what you find out!
FYI, I haven’t old looking Chinese hand canon barrel. It was an obvious fake, but I set it up on the lathe and sleeved it with a much stronger bronze barrel and board it to take a 50 cal. ball.
Then fitted it to a 5 foot piece of bamboo as it would’ve originally been.
The thing is an absolute riot to shoot. At 50 feet you can’t really hit minute of barn door
But I could see that 800 years ago. It probably would’ve put the fear of God into guys with arrows and swords.
Cheers.
The technology now is so inexpensive that what used to take an atomic physics laboratory can now be done with a device not much bigger than an Automotive multimeter!
That said, not sure how well advanced the inexpensive tools are for identifying age. But what used to be a major production is now quick and inexpensive.
Can’t wait to hear what you find out!
FYI, I haven’t old looking Chinese hand canon barrel. It was an obvious fake, but I set it up on the lathe and sleeved it with a much stronger bronze barrel and board it to take a 50 cal. ball.
Then fitted it to a 5 foot piece of bamboo as it would’ve originally been.
The thing is an absolute riot to shoot. At 50 feet you can’t really hit minute of barn door
But I could see that 800 years ago. It probably would’ve put the fear of God into guys with arrows and swords.
Cheers.
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These fakes were flooding the market about 10 years or so ago. It was obvious even before I bought it that it wasn’t real. But it was so interesting that I figured I could make it into a conversation piece.
Basically, you put a bit of canon fuse in it, light it, and then assume sort of a bayonet lunge position and wait for it to go kaboom!
.50 ball and 30 grains of FFg makes a satisfying pop! Just hold on to the bamboo tight!
Sirhr
Damn autocorrrect…
That said, in ancient Asia, they measured Samurai swords by how many bodies they could cut through. And hand cannon ammunition by how many bovines a ball could penetrate.
A 50 cow ball was really powerful.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it ;-)
Sirhr
