[Rq-rules] [OT][General FRP]Riddle of Steel

[Sven Lugar]

I am well aware of the Viking techniques for pattern welding blades 
having made reproductions of them myself. It is labor intensive and even 
weapons such as axes might only have a little edge of steel for the 
blade welded to an iron body. Still the archaeological evidence shows 
that they weren't quite as prevalent as most people think & the common 
fighter made use of the spear & axe more often than the sword. Many 
sword finds were of poorer quality steel (not much better than iron) or 
even plain iron during the viking age, hence my mention of an incident 
out of the sagas. Steel was not so common that it was used for everyday 
objects such as plowshares, etc. At the time any steel was extremely 
valued as opposed to our modern attitude of it being so commonplace as 
to not be noticeable. I apologize if that was not clear.
Skol,
Sven

Bjorn Stolen wrote:
> I'd just like to comment that steel is not a fixed entety; it's a mix 
> of iron and carbon, and actually many vikingswords were made of steel. 
> Pattern-welding is a technique used to mesh carbon into iron, so steel 
> was common far earlier than one can be lead to believe by Svens post.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:56:55 -0800
> > From: vikingjarl at gmail.com
> > To: rq-rules at crashbox.com
> > Subject: Re: [Rq-rules] [OT][General FRP]Riddle of Steel
> >
> > Simplified: the riddle of steel is: even though steel can cut a man..
> > Man makes steel & can destroy steel (ie: melt it down) & thus is
> > stronger than steel.
> >
> > Here' some thoughts for you that simplify history to the extreme but
> > should spark campaign ideas: In history Mankind didn't go directly from
> > bronze to steel, an "Iron Age" came first. Bronze is "harder" on the 
> Moh
> > scale when tempered than is iron but is far more brittle & shatters on
> > side-loading stresses. Soft iron can often bend (an example from the
> > Viking Sagas is when a duelist trading blows with another fighter in
> > Holmgang [a very formal duel] he has to straighten his sword after 
> every
> > blow) but doesn't shatter as readily as bronze. It will also hold a
> > sharper more durable edge when properly tempered. It was with Iron
> > swords that the early "Arian Barbarian Invaders", such as the later
> > Kelts, defeated the Bronze edged civilizations. Iron swords would often
> > break or cleave thru a bronze sword & that is a very great advantage.
> > Steel was not common until the Bessemer process made it "iron Age
> > smiths in Northern Europe found the remains of a massive
> > Meteoritic-Steel strike & made some rather nice nickel-iron blades from
> > that (possibly the source of the Legendary swords such as Excalibur,
> > Curtana, Joyeuse, etc) which were even better than the contempary Iron
> > swords. Note that early iron swords such as most spatha, gladii, Keltic
> > broadswords lacked a fuller (misnomered blood groove) & were heavier.
> > The fullered swords were lighter, stronger & better.
> > This information could give you a nice range of weapons within a 
> logical
> > structure:
> > 1) common bronze swords with standard Armour points & reduced by
> > continued damage.
> > 2) Spell enhanced bronze weapons making them a runic weapon that is the
> > equivalent of an iron weapon. Perhaps even superior to an iron sword in
> > cutting until damaged or the spell broken.
> > 3) Uncommon iron weapons with slightly greater Armour points - these 
> are
> > great weapons perhaps mistaken for a runic metal
> > 4) Rare steel swords of the old pattern with even greater armour points
> > & doing greater damage. More likely to break bronze weapons & armour.
> > This is a true Runic weapon
> > 5) So extremely rare as to be mythic fullered steel swords made from
> > meteoritic steel, well made & legendary doing a lot more damage & 
> having
> > a lot more amour points. Thus likely break bronze weapons & armour. A
> > legendary Runic weapon.
> >
> > I hope those ideas & information helps. Good luck Tony.
> > Skol,
> > Sven
> >
> > postmaster at runequest.za.org wrote:
> > > I suppose this could be RQ related. Some of you may recall the old 
> Conan
> > > movie and "The Riddle of Steel" I was thinking of integrating a bit of
> > > this thought process in my campaign, especially as my game world 
> is pretty
> > > much bronze age to early iron age. Some specialised lads may have 
> steel,
> > > but its very rare.
> > >
> > > So what was the riddle. Any ideas of how one try to solve the 
> riddle. Off
> > > the top of my head, I am thinking of perhaps a heroquest, or 
> similar for
> > > some long lost/alien knowledge. Or perhaps the longer someone 
> devotes his
> > > research time to solving the riddle (Against what skill, a weapon 
> or maybe
> > > knowledge?) he then gets some sort of special bonus. Dunno what, 
> maybe he
> > > gets a plus X change of a special attack or such.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts?
> > > Tony
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