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Recreating The Lost Art Of Damascus Steel
YouAreFatMan writes "The Chicago Tribune has an article about two researchers -- a metallurgist and a blacksmith -- who have apparently been able to reproduce the legendary Damascus steel. 'Islamic artisans used it for centuries to make swords that spurred envy and myths among Europeans--including the legend that a Damascus blade could slice a falling silk scarf in midair.'"
My turn, how about this one.
Bill 68, and Margie 67 take a ride to the doctor's office. Margie has her checkup first. After she's done, it's Bill's turn. After Bill's checkup is complete he says to the doctor "Doc, Margie has been forgetting things alot. She's been forgetting where she parked the car when she goes to the market, she keeps forgetting to flush the toilet, and once she even forgot our only son's name."
The doctor replies. "I noticed that something was odd about Margie, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It's possible that she has Alzheimer's disease, or it's also possible that she has AIDS related dementia. We just need to run a few tests"
Bill interrupts "But Doc, I'm on social security, and I can't afford a bunch of tests. What can I do?"
The Doctor replies "Take Margie to the local mall and drop her off. If the police bring her home, we'll start treatment to slow the progression of the Alzheimer's. If she makes it home on her own, move out."
-You can cry, but you'll still die. There'll be no tears in the end.
This is troll post and not only that it is totally inaccurate and wrong - read your history (and i don't mean your christian history)
Most of the mediavel history taught in the western world was written by Catholic (holy roman) scholars and thus is biased - the bullshit about unfliching religious law shows someone who has no familiarity with the Muslim religion - try reading the Koran before passing judgement.
They ran empires before the british had anything but an island
The solution? "You heat it up really hot and beat on it really hard," Verhoeven said.
This works for computers too!
So, like, this guy in a Honda Accord misses his exit, and stops dead on the freeway. Now, in most big cities, if you maintain a proper following distance while driving, you get cut off by people who see it as an opening into the lane. So I was closer to Accord than I should have been - a one second following distance.
I sullied my *perfect* driving record by using my 1976 Dodge Ram pickup truck to push his taillights into his back seat. As a result, I got to spend all of Sunday panel beating.
Rule number one in metallurgy: They don't make 'em like they used to.
Rule number two: 1/4" thick plate steel frame rails, with sufficient velocity and inertia, will cut through the rear end of a modern car like a hot knife through warm butter.
Rule number three: When you've dented a piece of steel, you've stretched the metal around it. In order to be able to beat it back into submission, the panel's affected area should be rested on a canvas bag filled with sand. A blowtorch should be used to heat the dented area, and a shrinking hammer (which looks like an iron version of a meat tenderizer) gets used on the hidden side of the panel.
Rule number four: While it looks and sounds easy, you quickly gain an appreciation for the artisanship of an old-school auto body man or a blacksmith and after you've managed to make the fender look like it's got the mumps, you realize it's about time to stop wasting blowtorch propane and knuckleskin and buy the $72.99 new reproduction fender you find online. Because it isn't easy. In fact, it's about as difficult as locking down a Windows 2000 box well enough to make it suitable for a production environment.
My kudos to anyone who is a blacksmith. It's an art.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.