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A comment on Trade secrets of the oldest family firm in the US (2012). Parent comment

Re:Trade secrets of the oldest family firm in the US (2012) by Turing_Machine on Sunday July 19, 2015 @12:58AM (#9910095)
It may not be just the composition (which could easily be figured out with a mass spec or the like). How metal alloys are formed and treated can have vast effects on their properties.

For instance, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz_steel

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Re:Trade secrets of the oldest family firm in the US (2012) by rjsw on Sunday July 19, 2015 @07:39AM (#9910867)
There are machines [1] designed for this sort of thing, my father used to "own" a JEOL one that he used for research on all kinds of stuff from Iron Age artifacts to gas turbine blades.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_microprobe

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