楊小光 編譯
In the cold open to Sunday's season premiere of Game of Thrones, patriarch and cold-hearted tactical mastermind Tywin Lannister personally oversees the work of one of the best blacksmiths in the kingdom. The task at hand: melting down the broadsword Ice, property of the now-dispatched Eddard Stark, to forge two new blades for the Lannisters.
在《權力的遊戲》第四季第一集中，蘭尼斯特家族族長和冷酷的戰術大師泰溫·蘭尼斯特親自監督了這個王國最好的鐵匠的工作。這位鐵匠的任務是融化已被斬首的艾德·史塔克的闊劍——寒冰，為蘭尼斯特人鍛造兩把新劍。
Eddard Stark and his broadsword Ice
奈德·史塔克和他的闊劍寒冰
Besides the obvious metaphorical value of melting down your foe's weapon to make it your own, there's another driver behind Lord Tywin's action: Ice is one of the few remaining swords in the Game of Thrones universe known to be made of Valyrian steel, a mystical material that makes the best weapons around. But the secret of making this alloy has been lost to the ages. Only a handful of smiths in Westeros know how to reshape the material.
這個行為除了明顯的隱喻：「熔化你敵人的武器,讓它成為自己的」外,泰溫公爵這樣做還有一個原因:在《權力的遊戲》中，寒冰劍是僅剩的幾把用專門打造神兵利器的材料——瓦雷利亞鋼製成劍。但是製造這種合金材料的秘密已經消失了很久。在維斯特洛，只有屈指可數的幾個鐵匠知道如何改造材料。
Does a real-life version of Valyrian steel, popularised by the Game of Thrones series, have the potential to revolutionise automotive markets?
美劇《權力的遊戲》讓「瓦雷利亞鋼」火了，但是這種鋼在現實生活中存在嗎？(如若真的存在)它有可能改變汽車市場嗎？
If you ask any Game of Thrones fan about a Valyrian steel sword, their eyes will likely mist over as they describe its exceptional sharpness, strength, lightness and distinct ripple patterns. Ask Professor John Verhoeven, a retired Iowa State University metallurgist, about the real-life equivalent – a Damascus steel sword – and you』ll receive the same, wistful response.
倘若你問：瓦雷利亞鋼劍是什麼樣的？任何一個「冰火迷」都只能描述個大概：極其鋒利、堅硬，寒光逼人，劍身還繡滿各式花紋圖案···然而現實生活在實際存在的、類似於瓦雷利亞鋼劍的大馬士革鋼劍是什麼樣的？你要問美國愛荷華州立大學退休冶金學家——約翰·費爾赫芬教授這個問題時，的回答也不能讓人完全滿意。
「The surface of a Damascus steel sword has this beautiful distinct, wavy pattern,」 he says. 「But if you are able to cut one up and study its microstructure under a microscope you will see layers of carbide particles that look like the Milky Way; tiny white dots all clustered together.」
「大馬士革鋼劍的表面布滿各式各樣美麗的、波浪形的圖案」，費爾赫芬教授說，「但是如果你從這種鋼劍上切一塊下來研究它的顯微結構，你會看到層層的碳化物顆粒，有許多聚集在一起的小白點，看起來像銀河。」
Be it fact or fiction, Verhoeven and many fans of the epic fantasy drama are dazzled by these legendary weapons. But for Verhoeven, his enduring passion follows a life-long commitment to solving the mystery of the Damascus steel sword.
不管是在現實還是在小說中，這些傳奇般的兵器讓費爾赫芬以及這部史詩奇幻劇的許多粉絲目炫不已。但對於費爾赫芬來說，他將自己畢生的精力都致力於研究大馬士革鋼劍的秘密。
Manufactured between the 3rd and 17th centuries, Damascus blades were prized for being so sharp they could cut a silk scarf in half as it fell to the ground. Yet, as Verhoeven points out, the last swords were made in the early 1800s and the formula for the steel soon died out.
大馬士革劍大規模製造於公元3世紀到17世紀之間，其以刀刃極其鋒利著稱，以至於它可以將往下落的絲巾切成兩半。然而正如費爾赫芬所言，最後的那批大馬士革劍是在19世紀初製成的，從那時起大馬士革鋼的鍛造工藝很快就失傳了。
Reports indicate that the swords were made by forging small cakes of 『wootz』 steel, manufactured in India. Here, craftsmen would melt iron and carbon-containing materials, such as charcoal, in a sealed crucible. The cooled and hardened ingots were then shipped to Damascus, where smiths would heat and hammer them to form the blade with its deadly properties and characteristic pattern.
有報導稱，這些劍是在印度用小塊的「烏茲鋼」熔化鍛造而成的。在這裡，工匠們在一個密封的坩堝裡熔化鐵和含碳材料，比如木炭。隨後，冷卻、硬化的鋼錠被運往大馬士革。在那裡，鐵匠們將它們加熱並進行鍛打，使其劍刃鋒利無比、花紋圖案精美別致。
Recreating Damascus steel
Verhoeven spent much of the 1980s formulating a method to replicate this process, with blacksmith Alfred Pendray. And come the 1990s, the pair were consistently making Damascus-like blades via a forging and cyclic heating process, and using a cast iron called Sorel.
在20世紀80年代，費爾赫芬和鐵匠阿爾弗雷德·彭德雷花費了大量時間來制定一種方法來復原這個過程。到了20世紀90年代，這對搭檔一直在用鍛造和循環加熱索雷爾生鐵(一種低錳生鐵)的方法製造傳說中的大馬士革鋼劍。
「Al’s technique was similar to what we learned ancient people had used,」 explains Verhoeven. 「Still, I was unable to figure out what was going on right away, until 1996, when I realised this steel contained impurities of vanadium.」 Indeed, as the metallurgist highlights, impurities, such as vanadium, promote the alignment of carbides during ingot forging, leading to the banding patterns.
「阿爾弗雷德所用的方法和我們所知的古代人的做法類似。」費爾赫芬解釋到，「儘管如此，我還是無法弄清到底發生了什麼，然而直到1996年，我才意識到這鋼中含有釩。」事實上，正如這位冶金學者所強調的，像釩這樣的雜質，在鑄錠過程中促進了碳化物的排列，從而導致了條帶狀花紋。
Yet despite success, Verhoeven’s method never made it out of the blacksmith’s forge. According to the metallurgist, their process was labour- and energy-intensive, and, as he adds: 「It’s just way too expensive to be commercialised.」
然而，儘管理論上可以解釋，但利用費爾赫芬的方法，這種鋼卻從未被鐵匠鍛造出來。根據冶金學者的說法，他們的製作過程是勞動密集型和能源密集型的，他還補充道:「商業化的成本太高了。」
Developing a super malleable steel
But Verhoeven has hardly been alone in his hot pursuit of the Damascus steel sword. In the early 1980s, Professors Jeffrey Wadsworth and Oleg Sherby from Stanford University were developing ultra-high carbon, super malleable steels with great strength, ductility and toughness.
但在對大馬士革鋼劍的狂熱追求中，費爾赫芬絕非獨自一人。20世紀80年代初，史丹福大學的傑弗裡·沃茲沃斯教授和奧列格·舍爾比教授正在開發超高碳、超韌性鋼，這些鋼種的強度大，延展性和韌性好。
The pair manufactured ring components and bevel gears from their ultra-high carbon steel, and were convinced the material held great potential in structural applications, including ultra-high strength sheet materials for automotive applications.
這對來自史丹福大學的組合用超高碳鋼製造了環形組件和錐齒輪，並確信該材料在結構應用中具備巨大的潛力，包括用於汽車的超高強度材料。
Around this time, the researchers also realised their material compositions coincided with that of Damascus steel swords. Given this, they went on to hone the 『Wadsworth-Sherby』 method which reproduced super malleable steels with coarser and aggregated iron carbides to produce the distinct banding.
在這段時間裡，研究人員也意識到他們的物質組成與大馬士革鋼劍正好吻合。考慮到這一點，他們繼續改進了「沃茲沃斯 - 舍爾比」的方法，該方法可以用成分更粗複雜的聚合鐵碳化物來生產出有明顯的條帶狀的超韌性鋼。
Their results hit the headlines, and they reckoned they had shown that ancient Damascus steel swords could have exhibited super malleable properties. But, again, commercialisation faltered.
他們的研究結果轟動一時，他們認為自己已經證明了古代大馬士革鋼劍可能具有超強的可延展性。但是,還不具備商業化的條件。
As Wadsworth, now president of US-based research organisation, Battelle, says: 「Commercialisation of our ring components was intended by Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland, but the project was abandoned.「We gave it hell of a shot and did everything we could, but we got caught up in scaling up costs,」 he adds.
「我們環組件的商業化是由瑞士蘇澤兄弟公司設計的，但是這個項目被放棄了。」已成為美國巴特爾研究所所長的沃茲沃斯介紹說，「我們已竭盡所能，但實在承受不了不斷高企的成本。」
A new phase of development
So, does the failure of past commercialisation attempts leave wootz steel and Damascus-like components firmly on the historical shelf? Given ongoing interest, perhaps not yet.
那麼，過去的商業化嘗試的失敗是否會讓「烏茲鋼」和大馬士革鋼之類的刀具只能存在於被束之高閣的書籍裡呢?考慮到目前公眾對其持續高漲的興趣，或許還沒到說放棄的時候。
In the last few years, China-based researchers from the Central Iron & Steel Research Institute in Beijing, have used metallurgical computational software to analyse Damascus blade data and proposed mechanisms for the breathtaking bands.
在過去的幾年，來自中國鋼鐵研究總院的研究人員使用冶金計算軟體，分析了大馬士革劍刃的數據，並提出了劍身花紋的形成機理。
Meanwhile, researchers from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, have used transmission electron microscopy to pinpoint carbon nanotubes in a genuine Damascus sabre, that they believe could also be linked to the banding.
與此同時，德國德勒斯登科技大學的研究人員使用透射電子顯微鏡，在一個真正的大馬士革軍刀中精確定位出碳納米管結構，他們認為這也可能與劍身表面的條帶狀物有關。
Researchers at Mälardalen University, Sweden, have produced several knife blades while Damasteel, Sweden, produces 『Damascus patterned steel』, for knife manufacture. And archeometallurgists from The Wallace Collection, UK, are using neutron diffraction analysis (a non-destructive scanning method that has high penetration into materials) to determine how several ancient blades were made.
瑞典梅拉達倫大學的研究人員製造了幾把刀片，而瑞典的達瑪鋼製造了「大馬士革花紋鋼」，用於製造刀具。來自英國華萊士收藏館的考古學家們正在使用中子衍射分析(一種具有高滲透材料的無損掃描方法)來確定幾種古代劍刃的製作方法。
For his part, Wadsworth is optimistic that, in time, the world will use Damascus-like steel for more than just the replication of ancient steel blades. 「It would be interesting to compare the properties of modern steels going into cars with those of ultra-high carbon steel and see if weight savings can be gained through the superior strength of these steels,」 he says.
沃茲沃斯樂觀地認為，隨著時間的推移，世界將會在各個領域使用像大馬士革鋼一樣的鋼鐵材料，而不僅僅是對古老的刀具的複製。他說:「將現代的汽車用鋼的性能與(古代用於製造大馬士革鋼劍的)超高碳鋼進行比較，看看能否通過使用這些超高強度鋼來減輕汽車重量，這將是一件有趣的事情。」
本文編譯自文章《Forging Valyrian steel》 和《Can You Simply Reforge a Metal Like Valyrian Steel?》
新聞熱線：010-64414265
廣告熱線：010-64442123
發行熱線：010-64441858