• Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    7 months ago

    These are the required elements for making steel:

    • Iron
    • Carbon
    • Manganese
    • Chromium
    • Phosphorus
    • Sulphur
    • Nickel
    • Molybdenum
    • Titanium
    • Copper
    • Boron

    Source: https://www.cliftonsteel.com/education/11elementsfoundinsteel

    So, iron is only step 1. Humans are carbon based lifeforms, so I’m guessing that carbon is also sorted, that’s step 2.

    There’s plenty of other elements in the human body, like phosphorus and sulphur, but I’m guessing that it’s going to take more than 300 adults.

    Source: https://sciencenotes.org/elements-in-the-human-body-and-what-they-do/

    Source: https://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PeriodicTableHumanBody.png

    • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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      7 months ago
      1. Your link says these are elements commonly found in steel, not that they are all required. In fact it says of phosphorus and sulphur that they are generally undesirable.
      2. We don’t need to make a steel sword, an iron sword could do.

      Either way you would definitely need carbon, but as you say that’s pretty easy. I don’t think any of the other elements are absolutely required.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Well, the non-metals and Manganese are way more available than iron anyway (probably molybdenum too). But it will be really difficult to create high-quality steel.

    • general_kitten@sopuli.xyz
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      7 months ago

      Steel requires only iron and up to about 2% carbon

      Rest are minor alloying elements used mainly in modern steel alloys to improve the steel beyond what just carbon steel could do like for example stainless steels

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      You only need iron and carbon the rest is already alloyed steel. You can definitely make a good blade out of only iron and carbon, it won’t be stainless, it might be difficult to harden just right, but it will be flexible and hold a keen edge if forged right. The smiths of ole dealt with nastier steels containing all kinds of things making it worse, not better (such as excessive amounts of sulphur and phosphorus) so I’d say they’d manage.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 months ago

      Those are all of them, but that’s for a lot of different types of steels. You don’t have to have all of those metals to make steel. You really just need iron and a tiny bit of carbon. A few of your ingredients help with purity, and the rest are additives for different steel properties you may want. Like a touch of nickel for stainless steel.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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        7 months ago

        I searched for ingredients for making steel. I’m obviously not a metallurgist, nor do I pretend to be one on the internet :)

        The meme triggered my interest into discovering just what might be involved.

        Clearly I’ve just scratched the surface …

        • Sigh_Bafanada@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          This thread is giving me massive deja vu. I’m pretty sure I read almost this exact thing six months ago.

          Beep boop are you a bot?