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Formation Characteristics of Damascene Structure of a 17th Century Persian Saber Shamshir

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Historiographical studies were carried out to clarify the regional origin and establish the dating periods of the Persian Shamshir blade. It was revealed that every section of the Persian Shamshir blade consists of damask surface areas having different macrostructure. The damask surface in the forte resembles the highest-grade Taban Damascus steel, the pattern of the middle section of the blade is typical of a medium-grade Kum Hindi steel, and the foible pattern corresponds to the lowest quality Sham steel. The features of carbide banding in the longitudinal and transverse directions were studied. It was determined that the damascene structure comprises a regular layered morphology of carbide banding of score 4 of inhomogeneity. It was concluded that the width ratio of the troostite sections to the carbide layers obeys the golden ratio rule (61.8%:38.2%). It was established that the main background of the damascene structure of the 17th-century saber blade Shamshir is the matrix phase of lamellar troostite, with a volume fraction of 78%, and the excess phase of pebble-type cementite carbide, with a volume fraction of at least 85%.

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Acknowledgements

The studies were carried out using the equipment of the Central Research Center “Structure, mechanical, and physical properties of materials” at the Novosibirsk State Technical University and the tool base of the metal structures plant of JSC “Aleksinstroykonstruktsiya.” The authors would like to express their gratitude to the staff of the Department of Materials Science in Mechanical Engineering of Novosibirsk State Technical University for their assistance in the research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASK-MSC Company, Moscow, Russia

    D. A. Sukhanov

  2. Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

    N. V. Plotnikova

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  1. D. A. Sukhanov
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  2. N. V. Plotnikova
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Correspondence to D. A. Sukhanov.

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Translated from Metallurg, Vol. 67, No. 10, pp. 122–132, October, 2023. Russian https://doi.org/10.52351/00260827_2023_10_122

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Sukhanov, D.A., Plotnikova, N.V. Formation Characteristics of Damascene Structure of a 17th Century Persian Saber Shamshir. Metallurgist 67, 1576–1588 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11015-024-01651-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11015-024-01651-3

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