I like the point that someone made that what we're discussing in reagrds to Gloranthan Bronze is a substance that is very, very common (ala Earth's Iron Age iron), and IMO it's as hard as mild, untempered steel or well-worked bronze - as far as weapons are concerned, relatively easily nicked, but also easy to repair. Iron, in the Gloranthan sense, is also IMO just like the RW - "found" or mined Iron is a pretty poor quality material for anything, until it's worked. However IMG raw iron has slightly more magic-damping qualities.
Also, some of the metallurgists out there I'm sure can clarify this for me: I was of the understanding that even too high-phosphor and especially too high-carbon iron (call it crappy steel for the sake of argument) can be slowly rectified by extensive tempering. The heating/quenching/heating/requenching allows enough oxidation that the outer shell of material (thinly - say 1000 atoms thick) actually forms a useful steel. Of course the tempering must be done correctly (heated oil instead of water, frex) but I think we underestimate the amount of practical, experimental knowledge these smiths would have had - they would have seen what worked over & over, and what didn't.
That's off-topic, tho. Feel free to respond by direct email.
- -Steve Lieb
styopa_at_iname.com
steve_at_necadon.com
http://surf.to/styopa
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #194
Powered by hypermail