Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

I know that pre war steel has a high demand because it was forged before any nukes were let off.Is it all pre war steel or just the steel on the bottom of the ocean?

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Never heard of this what does nuclear bombs have to do with steel ?

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Peaked my interest seems that steel had isotopes in it released by above ground detonations . This is interesting as the levels have now gone down to normal and steel manufacturers use purified 02 .

“Thankfully, since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1960s, radiation levels have decreased to near natural levels. In most cases, modern steel is sufficiently “uncontaminated” for use in most radiation-sensitive applications. This is because steelmaking has also largely turned away from the Bessemer Process in favor of the Basic Oxygen Process, which uses uncontaminated pure oxygen instead of atmospheric air”

Seems the demand was for scientific instruments that were sensitive to the isotopes. But with modern electronics the instruments could be set to compensate.

https://interestingengineering.com/s...-pre-war-steel

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Another reason for wanting salvage early steel is purity. A lot of steel today has been through the mill several times. Each time through the process of smelt, process, mill, make things, and recycle, the metal picks up a new set of additives needed to make whatever type of steel was needed for the new gizmo. A lot of these don't magically vanish when the new gizmo reaches EOL and is recycled. All the added impurities limit what the steelmaker can do with the many times recycled metal.

A sunken ship from WWI or WWII is probably new steel that was first used in that ship and can be more valuable to a steel plant making specialty steel.

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Not all steel mined and produced today contains recycled material. Early 'virgin' steel is definitely superior, but the same quality 'could be' still accomplished today...same as other materials like rubber. Today you don't get rubber that is actually rubber. As time has passed, more and more additives has been employed to the point that it's lifespan has been reduced to less years than we have fingers

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Not sure if pre-war steel or not but this anvil I drug home today seems old. Girder segment maybe? The metal band across the stump strikes me as hand forged.

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

So I’m clear…..the atmospheric atomic testing effected and made less-desirable, the zillion-year-old non-atmospheric-exposed buried underground iron ore??

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

That's a cool setup.

This is neither here nor there, but you never struck me as a painted toes kind of guy.

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

If he'd painted them they'd have at least two layers with a clear coat, and a shine 10 feet deep.

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Lol. Flames. I’d do flames.

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No radioactive isotopes in this old baby! :lol:

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Looks like a large railroad rail that was made into an anvil or possibly a girder. I use one that’s not as large that was removed when they converted the rail lines here to electric . Got it from a guy that works for metro north

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Haha! For sure!

:lol:

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Strange that nukes would have an affect like that!

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Coincidentally, I researched this bronze medal in the course of some genealogy work. It came to me indirectly from my long passed Grandfather without any provenance. It’s prewar ca 1883 and reflects membership in a since disbanded fraternal society, the Grand Army of the Republic, for veterans of the Civil War.

While not recycled steel, it is recycled bronze.

These medals were made from rebel cannons.

Re: Pre war steel in ships/planes
 

Any steel cast before atomic bomb testing is the good stuff. Just so happens the majority of whats left is sunken ships ie war graves.