The testing and comparisons they did to the other swords of the period really drives home the GURPS "all TL6+ blades are automatically good quality" home. I think I've seen this program before, but never really paid proper attention to it.
Great, now I need to track down a copy of Low Tech to see if they have all the different types of swords and their uses in there, among other things.
Learning how steel was made then and is made today really underlines how any sword made from TL6 on is "good". You almost have to set up your own shop and deliberately make the steel the old way to get any of it at all today.
You can't buy bar stock with all those inclusions!
I know some people laugh at the beginning of Conan: The Barbarian where the Cimmerian smith is making a sword by pouring molten metal into vaguely sword shape mold. They did not make swords that way then, of course, but if they had a foundry that could heat iron hot enough to flow that well their steel would be EXCELLENT metal!
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The testing and comparisons they did to the other swords of the period really drives home the GURPS "all TL6+ blades are automatically good quality" home. I think I've seen this program before, but never really paid proper attention to it.
ReplyDeleteGreat, now I need to track down a copy of Low Tech to see if they have all the different types of swords and their uses in there, among other things.
Learning how steel was made then and is made today really underlines how any sword made from TL6 on is "good". You almost have to set up your own shop and deliberately make the steel the old way to get any of it at all today.
ReplyDeleteYou can't buy bar stock with all those inclusions!
I know some people laugh at the beginning of Conan: The Barbarian where the Cimmerian smith is making a sword by pouring molten metal into vaguely sword shape mold. They did not make swords that way then, of course, but if they had a foundry that could heat iron hot enough to flow that well their steel would be EXCELLENT metal!
I'm actually 99% of the way to my engineering degree, so I know how good modern steel is. What they don't teach is just how BAD old steel was!
Delete