How does medieval steel compare to modern steel?

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damib

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Hello,
I've been thinking about this hypothetical scenario. Imagine that you could go back in time and you could have one relatively low end knife like Glock knife and something relatively high end like Lionsteel M7. How do you think that those knives would compare in terms of their properties, composition, heat treat and other variables compared to medieval knives?
 
It doesn't compare in any way, other than the primary constituents being iron and carbon. Wootz, while also medieval, is another story, as it's actually a crucible steel, but generally still well below many modern steels in performance.
 
Not sure how there is a valid question here.

- How would the Wright brother's first plane compare to a SpaceX vehicle?
- How would a Ford Model T compare to a Bugatti Veyron?
- How does an LED bulb compare to an Edison filament bulb?

Since they had no structural understanding of steel components and their effects on the end product as well as an understanding of temperature effects as two rudimentary protocols of steel manufacture, I can't see how any steel more than a couple of hundred years old could compete with today's modern knife steels. Maybe not even then.
 
midnight flyer said:
Not sure how there is a valid question here.

- How would the Wright brother's first plane compare to a SpaceX vehicle?
- How would a Ford Model T compare to a Bugatti Veyron?
- How does an LED bulb compare to an Edison filament bulb?
Click to expand...
You forgot the most important question:
How would Phyllis Diller compare to Jayne Mansfield?
 
justjed said:
Oh yeah, they had skills in smithing! But, the steel they used did not perform as well as modern steels. I'd still not have liked to have faced one of their blades in battle, even armed with modern steel. It's not the arrow, but the archer...
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This. As was previously mentioned medieval sword making was far more art than science and the quality was wildly variable... and we have a tiny sample size. That said, lets not delude ourselves. Firstly in general knife makers in general make lousy swordsmiths. A sword is not merely a big knife. A medieval sword smith would make a better sword than most modern makers even if his steel and heat treat were not as good because he would know what a sword of his era was supposed to do and what sort of defenses it would be required to overcome. There's a vast difference in a sword from 1100 and one from 1200. Second if one took say a L6 or whatever sword back in time to a medieval battlefield with illusions of grandeur I suspect that you would quickly find yourself skewered by your much stronger, much faster and far better trained opponent who would be oblivious to the fact that he should be awed by your superior steel.
 
Well some of it varies within the era (that's a big time span) and region.
But the reason crucible steel was so sought after was because others could not make steel so pure. A lot of that medieval steel wasn't made in fires hot enough, resulting in a lot of inclusions.
That said some places like Toledo and Austria were known for their swords because they were sitting on relatively pure iron deposits. So best case they end up with a 10xx or White steel.
In the Middle East they knew to combine properties of two steels to make damascus steels - very much sought after.

But yeah, one billet of steel to another the modern ones will uniformly be better. And uniform.
 
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