Hello my fellow magicians!
Allow me to present to you my (hopefully successful) project of experimental archaeometallurgy, which I am writing my dissertation about.
After 30+ burning cycles, ultimately ending in various degrees of failure, I introduce to you my very first buttons, created by the 'co-fusion' process: and weighing in at 40 grams:
Meet my button 'A', rapidly cooled:
And button B, cooled with the furnace:
A sneak peak of the dendritic structure on sample 'A'.
Button 'B' has unfortunately leaked a bit, and thus corroded. It was tested by me on spectrometer to an average carbon content of 0.56 %, while the button 'A' has an average of 0.88 % carbon. They have some higher manganese, from the construction steel I used, and high silicone, due to the source of cast iron; otherwise they are low alloyed.
My point was to systematically test the different cooling rates' effects on equally charged crucibles... but that went down the drain, so now I am floating in the sea of information and data, without a question to discuss. Oh, and I was aiming to get 1.5%C, triple checked the math. Thus, I welcome myself to the cruel and unforgiving world of crucible steel making. I have passed into it from my love of knife making. Living in a city, I am troubled with forging, so I usually resort to the stock removal lore (sorry!)
I will post more photos once Google Drive allows me to. Until then, criticize away!
Best,
Loris
