Hi all,

Thanks for the great information. I seem to think I opened up a small can of worms.

To clarify and elaborate....I do have egg shaped crucible steel ingots from Central Asia. I excavated them along with crucible remains from the 9th-10th century and absolutely no mining for hundreds of miles around so these are genuine. The shape is partly due to the interior shape of the crucible, but to top may be due to a non-wetting slag and/or the liquid steels surface tension. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

The second type of "ingot" was a gift, apparently bought from a dealer. It had very little corrosion and a indent on the top. The lack of corrosion perplexed me. Then it was pointed out to me that it looked exactly like a mill ball, indent and all. This obviously made sense. Hence, my sudden interest in mill balls. Apparently, this is something that merits further research, so here I go...does anyone know if Percy mentions these. I don't have easy access to a copy.

Dave, I would also be interested in a copy of the report and micrograph.  

Ann