Mythological Quenchants of Ancient Blacksmiths

Archaeological digs have found many types of knives, with varying quality of steel and microstructure. Typically these steels are carbon steels with carbon contents on the order of 0.60%. Historically, there have been many myths concerning the quenchants used by ancient blacksmiths in the heat treatment of swords and knifes. Various quenchants have been cited in the archaeometallurgical literature as quenchants. Each of these quenchants are supposed extend to the part special and mythical properties. However, none have been examined for cooling curve behavior. In this paper, various quenchants are examined for typical heat transfer, and microstructure is predicted for simple steels commonly used in ancient knife making.