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Novel Research Help
August 11, 2014
1:23 pm
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JohnHopkins
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I am working on the sequel to a Science Fiction novel I have available at Amazon.com. I have not put a link here because I am not spamming, but will be happy to provide it to anyone interested.

One of my characters is a blacksmith. His work will be very important to the future of the group of Humans* who find themselves out among the stars, albeit involuntarily, in the early second century AD.

He is not a classic hero, but he is a good man. He is a capable blacksmith who supports his family with honest and honorable work. In the course of the story he has access to advanced technology. That will allow him to retire with the state of his work much more advanced than it would have been otherwise. His early teenage son and apprentice will take it further. Their work will result in the first Human built interstellar ship less than 100 years later.

Obviously, even though he is good at what he does, he is still from second century provincial Rome. There is no way he could take full advantage of even the cutting edge metalworking technology of 21st century Earth, let alone a star-faring society. Still I want to jump start his work.

I can make something up, but I don't want to make an unnecessary mistake. I don't want to give him a way of heating or cooling metal faster only to find that it would damage the metal in a way that you would know about that I would not, or to temper it in some way that would do the same.

Anyone who might be willing to advise me please let me know.

johnhhopkins@outlook.com    I will check back here often as well.

*Among the stars Humans are among other intelligent species. Human then becomes a proper noun like American, Italian, Brazilian and so forth. Thus it is capitalized.

September 20, 2014
10:21 am
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Lee Cordochorea
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Hello, John.

The rate a which steel is heated doesn't matter much. What is vital is to not overheat the steel and to bring the steel to an even heat. I'll deal with those individually. Hopefully I won't cause confusion.

Steel is damaged if heated to too high a temperature. There is a lot of technical literature from the late 19th and early 20th century admonishing smiths to not overheat. It was a common problem since steel (opposed to wrought iron) was becoming much more readily available and affordable.

Your Y2h protagonist would've had access to a lot more wrought iron than to steel. He might have known how to make "blister steel" from wrought iron. He probably would've known about "roasting the iron slowly," but would not have known about the surface carburisation thereby achieved. He would likely have a learning curve dealing with our modern low-alloy and plain-carbon steels. Our high-alloy steels would give the poor fellow fits.

Evenly heating the metal is something he would understand. When beginners of his day (or any day) heated the metal quickly, the outside would be much more pliable than the relatively cold inside. This causes frustration and cussing.

Induction heating, invented in Victorian times, is a very fast way to heat steel. A "soak time" is allowed after the current is turned off - this lets the inside and outside temperatures equalize sufficiently for working. On smaller pieces, say 1" square, this equalizing takes seconds.

I can throw a couple book titles in the mix if more in-depth material is desired.

No matter where you go... there you are.

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