Ferrous Arrowheads and Their Oil Quench Hardening: Some Early Indian Evidence From: JOM | Date: May 1, 2008| Author: Dube, R K | Copyright Minerals, Metals & Materials Society May 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC.Copyright information

A wide variety of ferrous arrowheads were in use in ancient India. Several typical chemical analyses of arrowheads found from archaeological excavation carried out at Kaushambi are reported in this paper. The average carbon content of these arrowheads varied from as low as 0.1 wt.% to approximately 0.9 wt. %. Literary evidence for oil quench hardening of ferrous arrowheads, as reported infamous Sanskrit epics-the Ramayana and the Mahabharata-have been discussed in this paper. This type of que...