TY  - BOOK
AU  - Williams,Alan
TI  - The sword and the crucible: a history of the metallurgy of European swords up to the 16th century 
T2  - History of warfare
SN  - 9789004229334
AV  - U854 .S55 2012
U1  - 623.441 
PY  - 2012///
CY  - Leiden
PB  - BRILL
KW  - TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Military Science
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Swords
KW  - Europe
KW  - History
KW  - To 1500
KW  - Metallurgy
N1  - Preliminary Material -- 1. The Extraction of the First Metals -- 2. The Smelting of Iron and the Production of Steel -- 3. Different Ways of Making Steel—Eastern and Western Steelmaking -- 4. Celtic and Roman Swords -- 5. Pattern-Welding -- 6. The Revival of Science in Europe -- 7. The Survival of Technology From the Ancient World -- 8. Viking-Age Swords and Their Inscriptions -- 9. The Invention of the Blast Furnace and Finery -- 10. Bloomery Steel and the Development of All-Steel Swords after 1400 -- 11. The Mass-Production of Steel for Swords and Armour -- 12. The Decoration of Swords by Etching and Gilding -- 13. Medieval European swords after 1000 -- Further reading -- Index; Available to subscribing member institutions only
N2  - The sword was the most important of weapons, the symbol of the warrior, not to mention the badge of a officer and a gentleman. Much has been written about the artistic and historical significance of the sword, but outside specialised publications, relatively little about its metallurgy, and that often confined to a particular group. This book aims to tell the story of the making of iron and steel swords from the first Celtic examples through the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. The results of the microscopic examination of over a hundred swords by the author and other archaeometallurgists are given and explained in terms of the materials available in Europe
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004229334
ER  -