At 5:21:07 PM on Tuesday, June 26, 2007, Daniel J. Milton
wrote:
[...]
> The second Google hit is a JSTOR reference that I'm not
> going to pay $10 for. The teaser is: "That is what we
> should say in English, but the Greek says 'tempering
> bronze'. The process of tempering iron by heating it in
> the fire and then plunging it ..."
... in water (Od. 9. 391-3) is still familiar, but no art of
tempering bronze is known to modern metallurgy. It has been
described as a 'lost art', but according to W. Gowland
('Ancient Brinze', The Mining Magazine, vii. 458-9) it never
existed. 'In the old days', he says, 'the bronze castings
for tools, weapons, etc., were hammered at the cutting edges
to produce the right degree of hardness and temper. No
other method was employed, such as heat treatment.'
Brian