Thanks everyone for watching! I would just like to add that there is still a lot more to say about the rise of iron usage in China. What I discussed here is mostly a tentative hypothesis that will likely change as more archeological studies are conducted and the evidence grows. The field of Chinese archeometallurgy is expanding at a fairly rapid pace and it is my hope that in a few years we may have more answers to questions about the exact timeline of blast furnace usage and iron weapon adoption.
I've heard of swords forged in Longquan county all the way back since the bronze age. I've always wanted to visit Zhejiang Province but there especially. I also heard that they teach Jianfa there, so that would be fun.
@@thescholar-general5975 do you know of any other videos that cover this? by the terms ive been searching this might be the only video that spells it out that it's cast in stages in english unless im really bad at looking for this ive had somewhat more luck finding papers tho but not much so far (the one ive found doesnt seem to be translated all that well and it repeats itself a lot which is unfortunate)
Glad I found your channel! Question on these 8-sided jian: It seems, from this and other reviews I've seen, like the 8-sided designs aren't quite as good cutters as some of LK's diamond cross section jian, like the Flying Phoenix. It looks like just a touch more resistance going through bottles. Did you find that to be true? I had a good laugh watching Skall trying to cut pool noodles with the Chu jian.
What i would like from lk chen is a shorter Qin Dinasty jian,like the one one can find under the name Qin Shi Huang sword, with square black and steel fittings,around 60 cm blade. Like the Chu Jian but not stretched. They have a very "imperial palace official " look. I like the ancient chinese fittings style more than the modern Ming or Qing ones.
The Ming and Qing dynasty fittings are too influenced by nomadic culture, which in turn was influenced by cultures such as Persia and beyond. Sometimes the fitting can be way too elaborate and loses some of the simplicity and elegance that were on earlier era swords.
Looks like the eight sided soaring sky model was designed to out maneuver and take advantage of the magnificent chu and roaring dragon chu style by way of length thickness and agility 🤔
Now I want to know the difference between a well made bronze sword and a poorly made one, is it a consistent material to work with? Was professional bronze sword making better then than it is now?
Nearly all the chinese bronze blades that I have seen on the market don't really match the geometry of excavated artifacts. Also, many of them do not list the bronze alloy percentage which makes it impossible to tell if the blades are suitable for actual use. Hopefully this is soon changing. I have seen the bronze swords on Art of Fire and Iron's website and they look much better than most. I would be interested in getting a hold of one at some point for a closer look, but I don't have the time or funds for that at this time.
i owned a 8 sided Jian.. its a basically a steel baseball bat. Unless if the sides sharpend on the sides without a second bevel i sold mine cuse it was very heavy and i needed to make room. im sure the LK chen one is more light and less of a "baseball bat" of patten welded steel.
Many 8 sided jian are a little overbuilt which is easy to do with this type of design which favors toughness over cutting potential. These two blades here from LK Chen are balanced fairly well.
legit LQ jian with a double fuller for 160 bucks served me well for a 2 years now.. yo just have to cut away the stupid strings and make the handle fit for you avoid the 8 sided jian
Migration era Europe had very good steel. However, the fact that some of the best Ulfbert blades used imported crucible steel from the Middle East implies that they were not not the only ones to create higher quality alloys. The true advantage of the blast furnace which China had was a massive increase in the quantity of steel that was available. The cast iron then had to be refined to make good steel.
By invented I mean the invention of the bloomery furnace which actually allowed iron in raw ore to be extracted and accessible to humanity. Yes, meteoric iron existed before then and its use was limited. And of course, humans did not “invent” the element if iron itself. Though you could argue that we did invent some elements such as Oganesson because it does not exist in nature.
@@g.r.bilyeu4226 If you understand the implication in the video talking about the invention of bloomery iron as opposed to the invention of iron itself, then you may be able to get something out of the video. If not, I apologize for not being precise enough with my language for you to intuit my meaning. I will make sure to avoid that potential misunderstanding on future metallurgy-related videos.
@@g.r.bilyeu4226 I never claimed to be an expert on metallurgy. And it is also impossible to be an expert on everything related to china. My training allows me to access secondary and primary sources that many others can’t and provides a historical context and framework to understand those sources. It does not make me infallible. You know as well as I that experts are entirely capable of mistakes. It is why the appeal to authority fallacy exists. My philosophy is to be open about my limitations and mistakes because I trust viewers such as yourself to have the cognitive capacity to evaluate claims based on the context from which they arise and the evidence provided. If you feel that all of this makes my videos unworthy of viewership, than that is entirely your prerogative. Of course, I would appreciate your support if you are genuinely interested in the topic, and I also appreciate any accurate critiques that you can make on any video because I want to know when I am spreading misinformation so that I can stop doing it.
As an Anthropology major I love the metallurgy discussed here.
I also find this topic to be very interesting!
Thanks everyone for watching! I would just like to add that there is still a lot more to say about the rise of iron usage in China. What I discussed here is mostly a tentative hypothesis that will likely change as more archeological studies are conducted and the evidence grows. The field of Chinese archeometallurgy is expanding at a fairly rapid pace and it is my hope that in a few years we may have more answers to questions about the exact timeline of blast furnace usage and iron weapon adoption.
请问有考虑过在哔哩哔哩弹幕网搬运一下吗？
@@世鹏江 我昨天在B站上发布了一个有中文字幕的视频，只要搜索“墨將點兵”就可以找我啦！
感谢感谢，这就去看
I enjoyed the more in-depth look at the bronze and iron age in China alongside the review of the swords.
I am glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
I've heard of swords forged in Longquan county all the way back since the bronze age. I've always wanted to visit Zhejiang Province but there especially. I also heard that they teach Jianfa there, so that would be fun.
A visit to longquam is also on my bucket list.
this is the only video that has spoken of and shown composite bronze items and im completely fascinated about them now
Yeah they are very cool and deserve to be studied in much greater detail.
@@thescholar-general5975 do you know of any other videos that cover this? by the terms ive been searching this might be the only video that spells it out that it's cast in stages in english
unless im really bad at looking for this
ive had somewhat more luck finding papers tho but not much so far (the one ive found doesnt seem to be translated all that well and it repeats itself a lot which is unfortunate)
Glad I found your channel! Question on these 8-sided jian: It seems, from this and other reviews I've seen, like the 8-sided designs aren't quite as good cutters as some of LK's diamond cross section jian, like the Flying Phoenix. It looks like just a touch more resistance going through bottles. Did you find that to be true? I had a good laugh watching Skall trying to cut pool noodles with the Chu jian.
Nice work, Brother, as always!
What i would like from lk chen is a shorter Qin Dinasty jian,like the one one can find under the name Qin Shi Huang sword, with square black and steel fittings,around 60 cm blade. Like the Chu Jian but not stretched. They have a very "imperial palace official " look. I like the ancient chinese fittings style more than the modern Ming or Qing ones.
The Ming and Qing dynasty fittings are too influenced by nomadic culture, which in turn was influenced by cultures such as Persia and beyond. Sometimes the fitting can be way too elaborate and loses some of the simplicity and elegance that were on earlier era swords.
Looks like the eight sided soaring sky model was designed to out maneuver and take advantage of the magnificent chu and roaring dragon chu style by way of length thickness and agility 🤔
Now I want to know the difference between a well made bronze sword and a poorly made one, is it a consistent material to work with? Was professional bronze sword making better then than it is now?
Nearly all the chinese bronze blades that I have seen on the market don't really match the geometry of excavated artifacts. Also, many of them do not list the bronze alloy percentage which makes it impossible to tell if the blades are suitable for actual use. Hopefully this is soon changing. I have seen the bronze swords on Art of Fire and Iron's website and they look much better than most. I would be interested in getting a hold of one at some point for a closer look, but I don't have the time or funds for that at this time.
i owned a 8 sided Jian.. its a basically a steel baseball bat. Unless if the sides sharpend on the sides without a second bevel i sold mine cuse it was very heavy and i needed to make room. im sure the LK chen one is more light and less of a "baseball bat" of patten welded steel.
Many 8 sided jian are a little overbuilt which is easy to do with this type of design which favors toughness over cutting potential. These two blades here from LK Chen are balanced fairly well.
Really love the Chu design on the scabbard. Is that lacquerware or just some synthetic paint?
这个视频中的剑柄我看不太清楚。请问您这个剑柄是缑绳缠绕的吗？
嗯，是的!
哇！你这个是真的讲究啊！真地道！好复原！
Can we have an episode talk about tang dao
I have got one on in the works! It will take a little bit though.
Whats with White Guys and Swords???
Lol I blame Tolkien. And for me personally, The Last Airbender was a huge influence.
so you are from the US...
legit LQ jian with a double fuller for 160 bucks served me well for a 2 years now.. yo just have to cut away the stupid strings and make the handle fit for you avoid the 8 sided jian
🤠👍🏿
视频封面应该是越王勾践剑吧。靠谱的中国式青铜剑还是挺难买到的。
Viking steel was the best change my mind
Migration era Europe had very good steel. However, the fact that some of the best Ulfbert blades used imported crucible steel from the Middle East implies that they were not not the only ones to create higher quality alloys. The true advantage of the blast furnace which China had was a massive increase in the quantity of steel that was available. The cast iron then had to be refined to make good steel.
When Iron was "invented"? LMAO!
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Nobody "invented" it.
By invented I mean the invention of the bloomery furnace which actually allowed iron in raw ore to be extracted and accessible to humanity. Yes, meteoric iron existed before then and its use was limited.
And of course, humans did not “invent” the element if iron itself. Though you could argue that we did invent some elements such as Oganesson because it does not exist in nature.
@The Scholar-General 墨將點兵 What an interesting non sequitur...
@@g.r.bilyeu4226 If you understand the implication in the video talking about the invention of bloomery iron as opposed to the invention of iron itself, then you may be able to get something out of the video. If not, I apologize for not being precise enough with my language for you to intuit my meaning.
I will make sure to avoid that potential misunderstanding on future metallurgy-related videos.
@The Scholar-General 墨將點兵 You're making videos claiming to be an expert. Accuracy matters. Otherwise, it's not information. It's misinformation.
@@g.r.bilyeu4226 I never claimed to be an expert on metallurgy. And it is also impossible to be an expert on everything related to china. My training allows me to access secondary and primary sources that many others can’t and provides a historical context and framework to understand those sources. It does not make me infallible. You know as well as I that experts are entirely capable of mistakes. It is why the appeal to authority fallacy exists.
My philosophy is to be open about my limitations and mistakes because I trust viewers such as yourself to have the cognitive capacity to evaluate claims based on the context from which they arise and the evidence provided.
If you feel that all of this makes my videos unworthy of viewership, than that is entirely your prerogative. Of course, I would appreciate your support if you are genuinely interested in the topic, and I also appreciate any accurate critiques that you can make on any video because I want to know when I am spreading misinformation so that I can stop doing it.