The construction of sword during the medieval age reaches a good level of quality in the western world where the "Damascus" swords assumes a legendary fame. Even from the ancient times two types of "Damascus" swords have been known: the eastern type based on the application of the ipereuctoid steels and the Western Damascus or Welded Damascus, because obtained through the friction welding of thin strips featured by different carbon contents. In this study a sword found in 1948 on the Adige riverside, near Legnago, has been sectioned and examined by optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, SEM-EBSD and the micro-hardness Vickers testing in order to point out the main microstructural features of the welded system, to identify the chemical composition of the non-metallic inclusions and the crystallographic textures produced by the forging operation. The obtained results have permitted to formulate plausible hypothesis about the significant aspects of the production process: temperature of the ore reducing furnace and of the thermo-mechanical route followed by the ancient artisans.

This study aims at casting new light about the knowledge of the metallurgical techniques developed by the Etruscan and the Romans during their political and cultural interactions in Central Italy. The analysis of two weapons found at the Etruscan sites of Vetulonia and Chiusi have pointed out some new information about the production process performed. The optical microscopy analysis has allowed to identify the sequence of the microstructural constituents present in the two ancient weapons. SEM-EDS has permitted to identify the chemical composition of the non metallic inclusion and to estimate the average temperature of the reduction process. The analysis of the metal matrix performed by a coupled argon plasma spectrometer permitted to measure the average chemical compositions of the studied alloys. SEM-EBSD analysis has allowed to identify the crystallographic textures present within the different zones of the sword blades and this has indicated the realization of a forming process that gave interesting mechanical properties to the metal products. The results obtained by the Etruscans artisans were of very high standard quality and their production system had been certainly assimilated by the Romans who found in them a strategic factor to increase their power.

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The formation of non‐metallic endogenous inclusions in ladle‐furnace treatment of a resulphurised C‐Mn Al‐killed steel was investigated. A model based on equilibrium reactions and using as input data compositions and temperatures measured at various stages of secondary steelmaking was developed and applied to different routine and experimental heats. Microstructural analyses were carried out on samples systematically extracted from ladle and from tundish. Detailed characterisation of inclusion morphology and composition was carried out to investigate their properties in the present resulphurised steel and to evaluate reactions taking place during different phases of ladle treatment. The experimental results were also used to validate the theoretical model. A good agreement between predicted concentrations of inclusions and experimentally measured values was obtained.