What is Bhulat iron? Why is it not forged and tempered? Why is wootz bulat iron not crucible steel? Why shouldn't there be an outrageous carbon content in it? Why don't dendrites determine its properties?
Аннотация: A note from what is described here more than once, deduced theoretically from the practical opinion of the famous deceased bulat-maker and blacksmith Viktor Vasilyevich Kuznetsov - who connected Bhulat and Hayrabad through the centuries.
I must say that, according to the theory of cutting, there are two types of steel - high-speed steels with which they cut and automatic steels that cut with these high-speed steels. In high-speed alloys, carbides (from Khairabad, Pakistan) are alloyed with refractory metals, which have very high hardness characteristics, and in automatic alloys there are non-metals whose compounds with iron have inverse properties, along with brittleness and possessing good lubricating tribotechnical properties.
Accordingly, the properties intermediate between these steels - as if alloying high-speed steel with free-cutting steel - would get an automatic high-speed steel - which just because of ablation / self-sharpening would cut bones and flesh well (at high speeds this is observed in long-rod penetrator projectiles used against tanks-flashing two through!)
These theoretical considerations are known in practice in steel alloyed with zirconium with a high sulfur content.
This reflection was born from Kuznetsov's article that alloying spoils wootz bulat iron (in fact, over-alloying with metal without equilibrium microalloying with non-metals phosphorus / sulfur, etc.), and his later commentary that ЭИ-107 where, in addition to chromium, there is silicon, on the contrary, increases the properties of steel similar to bulat iron.
The so-called incongruent melting of chemical compounds from a metal and a non-metal such as chromium phosphide will also just give dendritic segregation - which is not the essence, but not the most important part of bulat iron, which does not determine its properties from the cutting theory - unlike alloying additives that do this flower iron in kilns like the Japanese Tatars and high-speed and automatic (in modern terminology).
Note that the English-language European term Damascus steel in relation to Orientalist eastern bulat iron(Bhulat iron - Bhulat, West Bengal, India
) is incorrect, since multi-layer forged Damascus steel has nothing to do with Bhulat iron and they are only part of the blade - when multi-layer forged Damascus steel is needed to damp vibrations for long-bladed weapons and should to be on the blades of the blade - while damask should cut flesh, and it is quite correct as a casting refrigerator to use forged metal on one side to set the direction of crystallization - pouring bhulat onto damascus, because the blade should consist of different parts that create its structure
Kuznetsov wrote that the wootz(wooden template zones) are castings (as from a ladle) and not ingots from a crucible (crucible steel) when casting for fat, and rather also when casting long-bladed weapons, the upper part of the mold was a cast iron chill mold coated with chill paint, and the bottom was made of a sandy cold steel mold - to start transcrystallization and piercing by dendrites, and proceeding from the fact that the flower iron is fibrous (as opposed to deoxidized steel), and most likely spilling from the "ladle" - a colder slag was also added - which was later done when creating an artificial flower iron.
That is, Bhulat iron - there is unforged cast iron alloyed with refractory metals and microalloyed with non-metals such as sulfur and phosphorus, introduced in the form of slag, deposited on needle ferrite for several weeks at a temperature of 250 degrees, cast into a mold with a chill mold top and a sandy cold mold bottom when casting for fat.
Hence, it can be understood that not all crucible steels of antiquity were damask steel, and a carbon content of 1% and a carbon content of 2% or more percent is not good for damask steel, because, on the contrary, it needs to crumble, self-sharpening against bone and skin with veins.
It is also clear that modern attempts to sell forged non-cast products for Bhulat iron - and Kuznetsov wrote that forging worsens the strength of the metal by 1.5 times - this is understandable because deformations and vacancies are introduced into the so-called crystal lattice of the metal - these are attempts to call Bhulat iron not bhulat, and of course, attempts to find the truth and have for this truth really is not a lot of money - which is not worth breathing carbon monoxide and carcinogenic polyaromatic aromatic hydrocarbons in the forge, but this is required by heart-al Kalb ...