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Reverse Engineering of Historical Swords

David Sapiro, PhD
Naval Surface Warfare Centers
Virginia, USA

Presented to the Eastern Virginia Chapter of ASM International on September 22, 2020

About the Presentation:

Reverse engineering is a task sometimes asked of materials scientists and engineers.  Whether used to determine processes lost to history, or methods used by competitors or adversaries, the techniques of unlocking the mysteries of a product remain the same.

As an example of reverse engineering, Dr. Sapiro has applied modern materials science techniques to historical sword making.  By utilizing information such as composition, microstructure, and available resources, a possible manufacturing method of Bronze Age swords was experimentally determined.  Alternatively, derived requirements such as impact toughness, hardness, and cost were used to experimentally establish a possible manufacturing method of a Renaissance era flamberge longsword.  If you want to know how reverse engineering is applied to materials systems, or you like swords and history, then please attend this virtual presentation.

About Our Speaker:

Dr. David Sapiro is a metallurgist by trade and at heart.  He currently works for the Naval Surface Warfare Centers as a manufacturing processes consultant, researcher, and quality and failure analyst, and spends his free time blacksmithing, welding, and conducting failure analyses for his friends.  With a dissertation on localized corrosion in stainless steels, Dr. Sapiro earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2017.  His corrosion research continued with a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Energy Technology Laboratory developing thin film corrosion sensors.