DIYbanter - alum and bronze-smithing

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alum and bronze-smithing

Hi,

I am a graduate student at the Unviersity of Texas at Austin in
archaeology. I have a technical question about how and if alum (or
other astringent substances containing alum or ferrous sulphate) can be
used in bronze-smithing.

The reason I ask is because bronze-smiths appear to be consistently
associated with alum procurement in a group of texts from a site
(Pylos) the Late Bronze Age in the southwest of Greece. I'm writing my
dissertation on the individuals from this site and their relationship
to the administration of the state.

Many thanks,
Dimitri Nakassis

---
University of Texas at Austin, Classics Department
Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory
http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/people/peoplea.html

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am a graduate student at the Unviersity of Texas at Austin in
archaeology. I have a technical question about how and if alum (or
other astringent substances containing alum or ferrous sulphate) can be
used in bronze-smithing.

FYI, bronze is for the most part cast, not smithed. To attempt such will
cause it to break apart because it is hot-short.

The reason I ask is because bronze-smiths appear to be consistently
associated with alum procurement in a group of texts from a site
(Pylos) the Late Bronze Age in the southwest of Greece.

Huh. I don't know of any use, chemical or metallurgical. As a flux, it's a
bad one, providing sulfur that'll embrittle your metal, as well as alumina
which tends to be refractory, countering the effect of the potassium in the
alum. I can't think of anything iron alum (potassium ferric, not ferrous,
sulfate) could be used for.

Tim

--
Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk.
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms