Thulsa Doom has passed on- Tell me the Riddle of Steel

[Murph]

James Earl Jones, the man with one of the most Iconic voices in Hollywood has passed at 93.  He was excellent in whatever he did, as well as being an infantry officer and a ranger.  GodSpeed Mr. Jones.

 

https://www.ksat.com/entertainment/2024/09/09/james-earl-jones-acclaimed-actor-and-voice-of-darth-vader-dies-at-93/

 

[X-Files]

RIP LT LOTHAR ZOGG USAF 

 

[Ivanhoe]

You're from the 60s!

 

[Ivanhoe]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[sunday]

 

[Rick]

A good movie for all of your family.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandlot

[Ivanhoe]

A good movie that couldn't be made these days;

 

[Mikel2]

Was he ever the main star in a movie?  He certainly elevated whatever movie he was on. Rest in peace.

[R011]

22 minutes ago, Mikel2 said:

Was he ever the main star in a movie?  He certainly elevated whatever movie he was on. Rest in peace.

The Great White Hope for one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_Hope_(film)

[Tim the Tank Nut]

reading the book Hunt for Red October I couldn't recall mentally assigning any particular race to the character of Admiral Greer.  Later, I saw the movie and Mr Jones played the part so perfectly that I can't imagine any other solution to the character.

"You heard it hit the hull, and I was never here."

I can't remember where  I read it but someplace it starts out with "There were giants in those days..."  I think of that line alot in regards to many of the people who have left us.

[Mikel2]

3 hours ago, Tim the Tank Nut said:

reading the book Hunt for Red October I couldn't recall mentally assigning any particular race to the character of Admiral Greer.  Later, I saw the movie and Mr Jones played the part so perfectly that I can't imagine any other solution to the character.

 

He played "competent man of authority" and did it extremely well.  No one cared what his level of pigmentation was.

[Murph]

6 hours ago, Tim the Tank Nut said:

reading the book Hunt for Red October I couldn't recall mentally assigning any particular race to the character of Admiral Greer.  Later, I saw the movie and Mr Jones played the part so perfectly that I can't imagine any other solution to the character.

"You heard it hit the hull, and I was never here."

I can't remember where  I read it but someplace it starts out with "There were giants in those days..."  I think of that line alot in regards to many of the people who have left us.

I am with you there.  No other actor can play that role.   Genesis 6:4 “There were giants…”

[Ivanhoe]

So apparently there is a minor epidemic of hurt butts re James Earl Jones.

In an interview with the BBC in 2011 (I think), he made the intemperate comment that his grandmother was most racist person he has ever known.

And then there was this;

 

[Tim the Tank Nut]

proving beyond doubt that James Earl Jones was a great man.

[sunday]

He became a Catholic when young.

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/james-earl-jones-legendary-actor-and-catholic-convert-dies-at-93

[rmgill]

Oh, and since it wasn't answered....

Proper quantity of carbon mixed into the iron so as to effect steel. If you can get meteoric iron then all the better as that has other magical stuff in it (nickel,) that make for more interesting. 

To get the carbon you can heat the iron in sugar or coal for hours to get it to migrate in. This isn't as ideal as crucible process but that's still limited in size and needs pig iron first. 

Interestingly early Indian steel had vanadium as an admixture, that helped it hold an edge and was sought for that magical characteristic. 

[Ivanhoe]

1 hour ago, Tim the Tank Nut said:

proving beyond doubt that James Earl Jones was a great man.

Not all that great, he also declared that the Tea Party movement was racist.

[sunday]

56 minutes ago, rmgill said:

Oh, and since it wasn't answered....

Proper quantity of carbon mixed into the iron so as to effect steel. If you can get meteoric iron then all the better as that has other magical stuff in it (nickel,) that make for more interesting. 

To get the carbon you can heat the iron in sugar or coal for hours to get it to migrate in. This isn't as ideal as crucible process but that's still limited in size and needs pig iron first. 

Interestingly early Indian steel had vanadium as an admixture, that helped it hold an edge and was sought for that magical characteristic. 

Vanadium in very low quantities also helps to produce that banded/watery effect of true Damascus, i.e. not pattern-welded, steel.

From John Verhoeven, one of the rediscoverers of the process, site:

Quote

In Al’s initial efforts to produce a replica of Damascus blades he used a variety of starting irons, Armco iron, Sorel iron, 1010 steel and wrought iron.  Going back and reviewing the starting materials used in blades which produced good patterns we found that most all of them had used Sorel iron.  However, the ingot 4191 used to produce the nicely patterned blades shown above used only Armco iron and wrought iron.  So we went back and analyzed this ingot material for low levels of carbide forming elements.  It was found to contain 0.005 % V and 0.09 % Cr.  These carbide forming elements must have been fortuitously present in the wrought iron, as was the V in Sorel iron.  With chemical analyses we confirmed that the Sorel iron contained around 0.03 % V.

So, after roughly a decade long collaborative effort we were finally able to produce compelling evidence of how and why the patterns were formed by ancient smiths in Damascus steel swords.

 

[rmgill]

Iron workers of modest to great skill were effectively the magicians of true skill for thousands of years. 

One of the reasons why I find the 1st Conan movie SO compelling is the subtle details of things that are derivative of the Hyborian age as being slightly alternate history but quite believably just lost history. See also the Oxus civilization of Central Asia. 

 

[sunday]

1 hour ago, rmgill said:

Iron workers of modest to great skill were effectively the magicians of true skill for thousands of years. 

One of the reasons why I find the 1st Conan movie SO compelling is the subtle details of things that are derivative of the Hyborian age as being slightly alternate history but quite believably just lost history. See also the Oxus civilization of Central Asia. 

 

Quite, but on Damascus blades I still think they found by chance a particular iron ore that gave the banded structure, and they kept using it until depletion. I know there are simple techniques to guess the composition of an iron alloy, like the spark method, but I would be surprised if they could detect the presence of 5/10,000th of Vanadium.

Conan movie, fantasy swords apart, was really compelling, yes.

Edited September 13 by sunday

[bojan]

2 hours ago, rmgill said:

Iron workers of modest to great skill were effectively the magicians of true skill for thousands of years. 

You know where trope of the "old mad weaponsmith" comes from?

 

[rmgill]

Probably from exposure to mercury when they were using cinnabar for various methods. 

[bojan]

Close.  

First bronze weapons were made from arsenic bronze, and long term exposure to arsenic f**** up brain and (especially) peripheral nervous system. Hence stories about mad and/or lame smiths. Arsenic bronze also gives much more silvery appearance, so even after appearance of iron it was popular, often used for faking iron weapons with much cheaper and easier to work arsenic bronze and for cheep decorations. Leftmost one is arsenic bronze, other two are tin bronze.

[TrustMe]

In the Conan film the actors used real steel swords rather than plastic / foam ones. After each fight scene, the actors were so tired from lifting heavy steel swords that they would have to have a long break to rest.