This November, the Mining Museum, St. Petersburg, informed of having for the first time ever determined the detailed chemical composition of 19th-century steel blades. The two-century-old swords were either brought from Tiflis or manufactured at the worldwide known Zlatoust Plant.
Examining samples had been previously considered unfeasible, for it could have posed a danger to the exhibits themselves.
The solution was found by employees of the Mining Museum, who picked for sampling the blades without hilts.
By taking samples from the coarse bits, no danger to the objects was caused. The chemical composition of the material was determined using XRF-1800 scanning X-ray fluorescence spectrometer in conjunction with the Mining University's specialists from the Department of Metallurgy.
Bulat steel is known to be a type of iron alloy with carbon. Yet its complete chemical composition was unknown and could not have been studied due to absence of technical capability. The new research data indicate that the items of Bulat steel are composed of up to record-breaking 21 chemical elements.
"No one has ever been able to determine the composition and structure of Zlatoust blades with such high precision. And as for Tbilisian blades, it is the first time they have undergone such examination. We believe the study results are directly linked to the characteristics of the deposit from which the raw materials were being extracted and the processing technology," says Karina Tumanova, Senior Researcher of Mining Museum.
Next on the researchers' agenda is to elaborate a unified reference database that based on the chemical composition of an object will return the time and place it was manufactured.
This kind of online service is likely to become popular among museums, private collectors who wish to identify their samples, and of course law enforcement agencies, often facing the need to determine the actual value of a particular object.
As a reminder, Bulat steel is a name that is commonly used for the alloy in Russia. Its origins date back to approximately 2,500 years ago; then it was known as Damascus steel and was primarily produced in India. In Russia, the alloy experienced a surge in popularity as a result of experients held by Pavel Anosov, a Russian metallurgical scientist.
