Chapter 94 Steel Filling Method

In fact, Ma Chao did not realize how his light words affected the whole end of the Han Dynasty.

'Phen iron and cooked iron are practiced together, and several nights will become steel...'

This passage actually comes from the works of Qi Wuhuaiwen in the Northern Dynasty, Wei and Qi more than 400 years after the end of the Han Dynasty.

Qiyu Huaiwen, surnamed Qiyu, named Huaiwen, was a famous metallurgist in the Northern and Southern Dynasties of China. He lived between the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty in the 6th century AD. He was good at Taoism and once served as the governor of Xinzhou in the Northern Qi Dynasty. This method has been used to make an extremely sharp "iron knife".

The iron knife is actually a steel knife. Sutie is named after its manufacturing method, and the manufacturing method of Sutie is actually the famous steel irrigation method.

Steel filling method is one of the most outstanding achievements of China's early steelmaking technology. In the history of Chinese metallurgy, after the development process of 'block refining method' - 'hundred steelmaking' - 'steel speculation method', steel filling method appeared.

The ancient Chinese smelting technology was in a relatively primitive stage before the Spring and Autumn Period, and the smelting method used at that time was called the 'block refining method'. At that time, charcoal was used as fuel for ironmaking, with less heat. In addition, the furnace body was small and the blowing equipment was poor, so the furnace temperature was relatively low and the melting temperature of iron could not be reached. Therefore, the refined iron was a spongy solid block, called "block ironmaking".

The iron smelting block is time-consuming, and the texture is relatively soft and contains many impurities. After forging, it becomes a usable cooked iron. In the process of forging iron and iron-making and iron-cooked iron, people need to be heated repeatedly. Iron absorbs the carbon in charcoal, improves the carbon content, reduces inclusions and becomes steel.

This steel has a tight structure and uniform carbonization, which is suitable for making weapons and knives. Later, it further developed into "100 steelmaking" technology.

When people make artifacts, they consciously increase the number of folding and forging. A piece of steel often needs to be burned, beaten, burned, repeated many times, or even hundreds of times, so it is called a hundred steelmaking.

100 steel has more carbon, finer organization and more uniform composition, so the quality of steel is improved, which is mainly used to make knives and swords.

Therefore, ancient artifacts were born, such as generals, Mo Xie, Juque Shenma, which were fully forged seventy-49 or ninety-eight days. Don't be fooled by this: that's because the level of that era was too backward, and people took so long to beat iron blocks because they couldn't beat good steel. I'm having fun.

After that, around the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, a new steelmaking technology 'steel speculation' appeared in China, which was a steelmaking technology developed on the basis of raw iron smelting and casting technology. The basic method is to heat the bionic iron into semi-** and **, then add iron ore powder, and constantly stir it. Use iron ore powder and oxygen in the air to remove part of the carbon in the cast iron, so that the carbon content in the biomelt is reduced, remove slag, and directly obtain steel. This is the technology of stir-frying steel.

The invention of this technology is a major breakthrough in steelmaking technology, enabling the smelting industry to provide a large amount of cheap and high-quality cooked iron or steel to meet the needs of production and war. The emergence of stir-frying steel has also promoted the development of steelmaking technology. People use stir-frying steel as raw material, and it has been repeatedly heated, folded and forged into steel parts of good quality. However, there are still certain defects in the technology of stir-frying steel and steelmaking technology. For example, the steel stir-frying process is complex and not easy to master; the steelmaking process is labor-consuming and time-consuming.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the level of iron metallurgy developed to this stage. That is to say, it is also difficult to get a good steel knife at this time. Because the quality of steel is still unstable, and secondly, forged steel is time-consuming and laborious. Finally, there is the single-liquid quenching method, which makes the steel knife either hard and easy to fold or tough.

A fact can illustrate this: Boss Cao is a knife lover. The seven-star sword that deceived Wang Yun at the beginning gave it to Dong Zhuo in order to save his life. Later, when he became the king of Wei, he suddenly remembered this and ordered a company to make five knives. I didn't think that the knife was made, but it took three years!

It was not until the emergence of the steel irrigation method that the quality and output problem of steel was solved in one fell swoop. Moreover, compared with the steel speculation method in Ma Chao's era, the steel irrigation method obviously has four advantages.

The first is to shorten the smelting time and improve productivity; the second is that pig iron and cooked iron can be made into steel, which improves the output of steel; the third is the method of steel filling to purify the metal structure and improve the quality of metals; the fourth is that the steel filling method is simple to operate and easy to master. If you want to get steel with different carbon content, you only need to combine raw iron and cooked iron in a certain proportion and melt it.

As for 'the soft iron as the knife ridge, bathe with five animals' urine, and quench five animals' grease...' This sentence actually refers to the double-liquid quenching method.

Double-liquid quenching method, that is, when the temperature of the workpiece is relatively high, a fast quenching medium is selected to ensure the hardness of the workpiece; while when the temperature is relatively low, a small quenching medium is selected to prevent cracking and deformation of the workpiece and make it have a certain toughness.

The double-liquid quenching method is a relatively complex quenching process. Under the condition that there is no temperature measurement and temperature control equipment at the end of the Han Dynasty, it can only rely entirely on the operation and experience of craftsmen.

It can be said that the emergence of the steel filling method and the double liquid quenching method also made the steel knife of that era a real treasure knife.

And Ma Chao, who doesn't know Mount Tai, is completely the prodigal son who abandoned watermelon and picked up sesame seeds. At this time, after seeing Pu Yuan wake up, he did not immediately let Pu Yuan carry out the steel filling method and double-liquid quenching method. Instead, he brought a wooden board and said mysteriously, "Master Pu, these things are called horseshoes. Can you build ten pairs in two days?

Horseshoe iron construction does not require a high process at all. With the technology and personnel of the iron shop at this time, it is fully competent. After asking about the specific size and specifications, Pu Yuan readily agreed.

"After a few days, after I tested the efficacy of this horseshoe, I asked Captain Huang to send another 300 blacksmiths. At that time, Superintendent Pu should give careful guidance and be sure to create 20,000 pieces!" Thinking that Brother Chou's efforts to buy the big plan are almost the same, Ma Chao estimated that the iron shop should be expanded in the past few days.

"The villain will not humiliate his life!" Pu Yuan heard that his men were going to increase, and he laughed even more happily.

"Don't call yourself a 'little man' anymore, my blacksmith supervisor, you should call yourself 'bei zhi'!" Ma Chao said with a smile. He even patted Pu Yuan on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement.

And Pu Yuan was also flattered and replied excitedly, "The little man knows..."

Ma Chao has a black line: It seems that he still needs to work hard to change the humble thoughts of these people.

However, not long after, when Pu Yuan had successfully developed the steel filling method and double-liquid quenching method, and was promoted to Ma Chao's subordinates as those generals, Ma Chao patted the table and shouted, "What a Pu Yuan, why did you report such a wonderful method at this time? At the beginning, he was the bastard who asked you to nail the horseshoe of what kind of horseshoe?