• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.231-245
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• 2007

The forged iron axe of the middle 3rd Century found in the No. 2 wood-framed tomb from the Hwangseongdong site, Gyeongju is rectangular on the plane level. The iron axe shines in met-allic luster, which is light grey with pale creamy tint. The result of X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the axe consists of magnetite and geothite, which can explain why the composition and texture of the original ore has been kept intact. There are fine-grained quartz, calcite, mica, magnetite, amphibole, unknown tungsten minerals, pyroxene and olivine inside the axe. Those must be the impurities that they failed to remove in the thermal treatment process. Generally, the iron axe consists mainly of pearlite texture coexisting ferrite and cementite, and show high carbon contents with homogeneous distribution. It can be interpreted the axe was carburized after the material was made to resemble pure iron. The decarbonization work didn't go well along the process marks. Crude ores of the iron axe are possible utilized by magnetite from the Ulsan mine on the basis of the occurrences and inclusions. It's estimated that the original ore was bloom produced in low-temperature reduction and formed around in $727^{\circ}C$, which is eutetic temperature.

• 한국문화재보존과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.33-42
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• 2004

The forged iron axe found in the No. 2 wood-framed tomb (the middle 3rd century) of Hwangseongdong, Gyeongju is rectangular on the plane level. It shows an obtuse angle in the edge part, while the joint part has the both sides folded up and shows the traces of wood. Under the reflected light, the Iron axe shines in metal luster, which is bright light gray or light creamy colors. The result of x-ray diffraction analysis shows that the axe consists of magnetite and geothite, which can explain why the composition and structure of the original ore has been kept intact. The microtexture of the axe has the irregular network of ferrite and pearlite, and tile cementite of tiny amount in the ferrite background. The overall treatment of the texture seems to be thermal with a high ratio of carbon. There are fine-grained magnetite, wolframite, quartz, calcite, mica, hornblende and pyroxene inside the axe. Those must be the impurities that they failed to remove in the refining process. The normal ferrite is composed of pure iron whose $Fe_2O_3$ proportion is from 99.16 to $99.84\;wt.\%$. Other than them, the ferrite parts usually contain $Al_2O_3\;and\;SiO_2$. The irregular network of pearlite also contains Impurities including $Al_2O_3\;and\;SiO_2$ and shows highly diverse patterns of carbon content. It's because the axe was carburized after the material was made to resemble pure iron. The decarbonization work didn't go well along the process marks. It's estimated that the original ore was bloom produced in low-temperature reduction and formed around in $727^{\circ}C$, which is eutetic temperature.

• 보존과학연구
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• s.27
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• pp.165-180
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• 2006

The research was conducted to understand type of iron used by those who lived at dwelling site of Yangsoo-ri in between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. to make steel products and their technique such as steel making process and heat treatment, based on micro structure information obtained through microscopic metallographic structure analysis with SEM-EDS of six steel productsexhumed at the site. Key findings are summarized as below. In the sense that Si-Ca-Al style and less than 0.5% of Ti were found in the non-metallic inclusion, the material used for forged iron ware was magnetite resolved in that. It is, however, unclear whether magnetite was resolved at high temperature or at low temperature. Microscopic structure analysis revealed that forged steel products were made through repeated hot working, the technique of molding by hitting after heating in the process of resolving and molding iron. As a result, the iron used here for the products was not the iron ore which was produced through resolution from discarded cast iron axe, ingot iron. It is probable that to make those steel products, disposed-of cast iron was reused after being molded by decarburizing. Although a few of relics were analyzed for the research, they were of critical importance in defining the process of ironware production from the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. at the Yangsoo-ri region. Judging from the iron from A-19 dwellingsite, it is possible to conclude that the iron was manufactured from cast iron decarburized and yet more research has to be done into relics yetto be exhumed in order to ascertain the finding. All of these findings are believed to play a critical role in further studies to define the steel-manufacturing technique used on the central Korean peninsular in the ancient times.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.367-378
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• 2013

Microstructures and nonmetallic inclusions of five forged iron axes and one cast iron axe were analyzed. The axes were excavated from the Proto-Three Kingdom Period site located in Yangchon, Gimpo. The forging objects were made of almost pure iron and low carbon steel, and only one among five were quenched after its figuration. Malleable cast iron structures showing on the casting suggest that the decarbonized casting method were applied. According to the results of nonmetallic inclusion analysis, the axes were produced by hammering the iron bloom which was attained with low-temperature -solid-reduction-method. Showing higher Fe content over $SiO_2$, it is assumed that the re-collecting rate of Fe was low because of the insufficient forging temperature and the impurities were included during the smelting process. It is assumed that the lime was used as a preparation because of detecting high Ca contents.