Joerg:
> > >Spot on, Jane - I calculated a blade about 1 to 1.5 kg,
> and the rest
> > >losses in production.
> > >
> > >The 450 cubic centimetres describe the raw ingot.
Donald:
> > That's a heck of a lot of wastage for working iron. While
> there will
> > be some loss from finishing, polishing and sharpening there'll be
> > little or none in the forging.
Jeff:
> Actually, that is not my understand of the matter. Depending
> on the process, there is considerable wastate. In the case of
> the pattern welding method used by the vikings and the celts,
> up to 3/4 of the bar was lost.
In one of those odd coincidences, a book stall I was at yesterday had a book on Roman iron production. I wasn't willing to spend =A315 to find out all the details of this stuff, but a quick skim suggested that for them, the forging process lost about 20% of the weight of the iron (and about 80% of the volume).
Sounds like wastage levels may differ depending on method (perhaps not a surprise), and no doubt gloranthan iron being different from RW iron, things there will be different again. And the basic cultural "work iron" ability level may have some influence on things.
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