12-12-2006, 06:13 PM
David Simm has had the chance to exampine a few more examples of Roman armour since he wrote Iron for the Eagles.
When I saw him in Carlisle a couple of years ago I asked him about the method he thought might have been used to case harden one side on an iron scale he spoke about in his lecture. He replied that he thought that it had probably been put back to back with another scale and then the two encased in carbon rich clay and baked, meaning that the two scales would effectively be one iron object that carbon infiltrated from both sides. When the baked clay was broken open the scales could be separated, leaving each with one hardened and one unhardened side. He said he did not see any reason why groups of scales and even larger plates could not be treated the same way. This, or something similar, might be a realistic alternative to the idea of forge welding thin iron plates of varying strengths of iron together to make hard yet flexible armour plates. Alternatively, it might be possible to temper iron in such a way as to give one side of a plate more temper than the other. The obvious method of doing this, to my mind, would be to pour oil onto one side to cool it gradually, although that would require a huge amount of oil to work.
Crispvs
When I saw him in Carlisle a couple of years ago I asked him about the method he thought might have been used to case harden one side on an iron scale he spoke about in his lecture. He replied that he thought that it had probably been put back to back with another scale and then the two encased in carbon rich clay and baked, meaning that the two scales would effectively be one iron object that carbon infiltrated from both sides. When the baked clay was broken open the scales could be separated, leaving each with one hardened and one unhardened side. He said he did not see any reason why groups of scales and even larger plates could not be treated the same way. This, or something similar, might be a realistic alternative to the idea of forge welding thin iron plates of varying strengths of iron together to make hard yet flexible armour plates. Alternatively, it might be possible to temper iron in such a way as to give one side of a plate more temper than the other. The obvious method of doing this, to my mind, would be to pour oil onto one side to cool it gradually, although that would require a huge amount of oil to work.
Crispvs
Who is called \'\'Paul\'\' by no-one other than his wife, parents and brothers. :!: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" />:!:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
