Who is simply amazed by steel?

Diomedes Industries

Diomedes Industries

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Mar 19, 2007
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Technology - smechnology...

I am not impressed by the i-pods, electro pneumatic paintguns, cars with butt cheek warmers and the like. The lever, the wheel, and a favourite medium around here is steel - NOW THERE is some technology I am amazed by.

I just think about how HARD it is to survive, or rather, how much easier it is to survive with a good piece of sharp steel.

Am I alone in being amazed by the invention / discovery that good steel is?

TF
 
Oh yes, I sure am, but at the same time a simple mind like mine is easily amazed:)

I love steel really. Steel can do so much so easily and look good too.
 
Since I was a boy, I have been fascinated with the thought of the first man who looked in the campfire ashes and found some metallic copper. I actually tried it several times, with no results at all ( long before I actually knew how to smelt).
Videos of sexy girls hip-hopping around the stage are OK, but if you really want to get my blood pumping, show me some film of a foundry, the showers of hot metal, pyrotechnic blasts, etc.
Stacy
 
Talfuchre said:
Am I alone in being amazed by the invention / discovery that good steel is?
TF
Click to expand...

Heck no! As a boy I was blessed to live in a town with a good public library, and read several Knives Annuals and other knifemaking books for free. OK actually not free, because I usually ended up paying small "fines" for not bringing them back on time. :o

As Stacy said, I would much rather watch a documentary on the steel industry than a video of pretty girls. I sure don't have anything against pretty girls, but steel in general is just fascinating to me. It's amazing how beneficial it has been to the development of society in general, and how important it is historically. For instance, one (of many) reasons the Nazi's invaded Russia in WWII was to gain control of mines that were producing chromium and other alloying elements needed for high-quality steel. To this very day, the making and use of steel is a HUGE factor in almost every economy.

99% of TV either bores me to tears or just irritates me, but I've seen some steel- and knife-related episodes of shows like "Dirty Jobs", "MythBusters" and "How It's Made" that I really enjoyed. (Even though I caught some gaffes and sometimes outright nonsense in each of them.)

The more I learn (slowly, VERY slowly) the more I realize I have to learn, and I find the whole process challenging and deeply interesting.

I read a great article in a FoxFire book (I forget which volume) about steelmaking in early America and it was as exciting as a mystery novel to me.
 
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Not necessarily the steel that I am amazed at, but what the makers do with it. Now that craftsmanship that the guys around the grinder have, does simply amaze me.
Jim
 
James Todd said:
Not necessarily the steel that I am amazed at, but what the makers do with it. Now that craftsmanship that the guys around the grinder have, does simply amaze me.
Jim
Click to expand...

Point taken, buddy. But the knifemaking giants, whose shoulders guys like me struggle to stand on, could make beautiful and functional items out of any material they choose. So far at least, only steel (in it's various forms) is so versatile that only small additions of various elements can allow it to be used for knives, I-beams, safety caps in your work-boots, car-frames, etc. etc. etc. I can't think of any other substances except water and breathable air that are more useful.

To wax philosophic for a moment, it occurs to me that the presence of iron and carbon and so forth on our planet points to "intelligent design". I really believe they were put here for us to learn to use.
 
Talfuchre said:
Technology - smechnology...

I am not impressed by the i-pods, electro pneumatic paintguns, cars with butt cheek warmers and the like. The lever, the wheel, and a favourite medium around here is steel - NOW THERE is some technology I am amazed by.

I just think about how HARD it is to survive, or rather, how much easier it is to survive with a good piece of sharp steel.

Am I alone in being amazed by the invention / discovery that good steel is?

TF
Click to expand...

TF,
I am not so much amazed by it as I am appreciative of it. What good steel can become in the hands of people who really understand and know how to work it is something I have always admired. Things made of good steel in general appeal to me more than just about anything except for things made of girl.

I AM amazed by electro pneumatic paintball guns though. 32 cycles per second. 2500 shots on 45 cubic inches of air compressed at 4500psi. 2 sets of electronic eyes to monitor not only the ball position in the breech and prevent the bolt from crushing the paint, but also to monitor the feed rate so that the microprocessor running the gun can optimize the cyclical rate. Separate regulators for each of the two air systems (high pressure side running at 180psi to propel the ball and the low pressure side at 70psi to operate the action) within the body of the gun, and a third on the air tank to get the pressure down from 4500 psi to 450 psi. Reliability of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of shots with just a little oil or grease on a few o-rings now and then. Only 4.5 lbs or so total playing weight, with a tank and a loader filled with 180 paintballs.....And all this technology developed for the sole purpose of shooting your buddies! Now that is amazing!

Hmm. Maybe if I understood steel the way I understand paintball guns, I would have a different perspective. :)
 
I'd have to put the awesomely staggering and infinitely diverse realm of living nature ahead of steel for its unfathomable magnitude of mutability! From amoeba to giraffe to human, from lichen to rose to sequoia, from mud to stalactite to tourmaline, from honey bee to monarch to condor, from anemone to octopus to blue whale....mother nature's a trip without parallel.

I guess I'd have to go next with wood and fiber as an arena of material worked by folks that is spectacular in its scope, beauty and functionality.

Steel (and metals) would be next, but it might be tied with silicates and silicon. Glasses are for sure amazing substances. This also includes electronics and its integrated circuits, as well as fiber optics, all made out of, essentially, common beach sand!
 
Good points Phil... I never thought about silicates in that way.

The coolest thing about glass too is that it acts much like a solid - but is a liquid.

That is just cool!

TF
 
Tal as cool as steel is and the artistic value of what some of you do is amazing, but with that said do not discount the butt cheek warmers on a cold morning. :) They feel pretty good.
 
Yes I am amazed by steel but am more amazed at the guys who started doing stuff with steel. Me making a knife is an acheivement since I am about as sharp as a bowling ball. Now the caveman that found a chunk of iron or bronze whichever came first, and manipulated it and actually made a tool, thats wat amazes me. We were born into a modern world, that guy was born under a tree or in a cave, grew up in the woods, found a chunk of metal, and decided to make something out of it with out having anyone or anything for reference. Now thats cool stuff.
 
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