Page 41 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Swords and daggers
Swords and daggers have been the most important tools for hand-to-hand fighting throughout history. Despite the handgun, knives continue to be an important piece of weaponry.
Swords were often the most treasured possession of a fighting man, and many swords were buried with their owner. In Viking times swords were often “killed” by bending them when their owner died and so making them unusable.
The sword is made of three parts: the blade, the guard, and the hilt. Throughout much of history the blade was wide and designed for slashing. First made of copper and bronze, the blades of swords and daggers gradually became made of iron or steel. The finest swords were made of strips of steel beaten out into a blade after being heated in a charcoal fire.
A very effective form of a slashing and cutting blade is the curved blade, called the scimitar by the Turks. A modified form of it was used by the cavalry in Europe and North America where it was known as a saber.
4% carbon is brittle, and it cannot be forged like wrought iron. But it can be poured into a mould and made into complicated shapes.
Pure wrought iron is soft and was not directly usable for weapons. But as better furnaces were made, higher temperatures were reached. In the hotter furnaces more carbon from the charcoal was soaked up by the iron. When even tiny amounts of carbon are added to iron, it becomes much harder. It becomes steel.
The first steel was made in Egypt, but the centres of production quickly moved to India and across the Middle East.
Steel was made in two stages: After the iron had been hammered to remove the slag, it was wrapped up in wood chips and put in a sealed clay container. The carbon in the chips was soaked up (absorbed) by the surface of the iron, making steel. Reheating and forging (hammering) the steel produced metal that would make fine weapons such as daggers and swords that could hold a sharp edge.
The Middle East, and especially the blacksmiths of Damascus in Syria, were renowned for their weapons, and this kind of steel became known as Damascus steel.
Blacksmiths then discovered that by dipping
hot steel in cold water (a process called quenching), the steel could be made even harder. Unfortunately, this also makes the steel more brittle. However, by reheating it to between 250 and 500°C and then cooling it in air (a process called tempering), the steel could be made tough as well as hard, with lessened brittleness and fewer internal stresses. This could be done by the middle Iron Age (about 1,000 b.c.).
Other metals used in ancient times
Iron has been the most important metal for most
of history. However, some other metals also had important parts to play. Brass (an alloy of zinc and copper) was discovered about 30 b.c. It was quickly adopted and was, for example, used for coins during the Roman Empire.
(Above) Metal was a very precious and expensive commodity. For this reason it was used with care. That is why it is found coiled up and also in places where there was wealth. This medieval wooden door is faced with sheet iron – a very expensive thing to do at the time.
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