A unique bronze barrel wall gun (doppelter Doppelhaken), Nuremberg, ca. 1515-20

cannonmn · 23rd March 2012, 11:03 PM

I had my "Ulrich von Schellenberg" hackbut "shot" by an x-ray analyzer today to see what it was made of. I had always thought the metal would be similar to cannons, namely gunmetal, which is approximately 90% copper and 10% tin. Poor innocent, ignorant me! Here's what the analyzer came up with. The very high iron and lead percentages were quite a surprise. I wondered why there would be any aluminum at all, but some other things tested the same day which I know are antique, also showed around 3% aluminum. Go figure!

Test no. and ID:

#10-Bronze Hackbut ca. 1510, presumed to be bronze

Al – 3.62

Si – 7.24

P – 2.08

Ti - .33

Mn - .08

Fe – 17.23

Ni - .04

Cu – 24.68

Zr - .028

Sn – 5.16

Sb – 3.23

Ir – 2.84

Pb – 33.43

23rd March 2012, 11:03 PM	#11
cannonmn Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 161	I had my "Ulrich von Schellenberg" hackbut "shot" by an x-ray analyzer today to see what it was made of. I had always thought the metal would be similar to cannons, namely gunmetal, which is approximately 90% copper and 10% tin. Poor innocent, ignorant me! Here's what the analyzer came up with. The very high iron and lead percentages were quite a surprise. I wondered why there would be any aluminum at all, but some other things tested the same day which I know are antique, also showed around 3% aluminum. Go figure! Test no. and ID: #10-Bronze Hackbut ca. 1510, presumed to be bronze Al – 3.62 Si – 7.24 P – 2.08 Ti - .33 Mn - .08 Fe – 17.23 Ni - .04 Cu – 24.68 Zr - .028 Sn – 5.16 Sb – 3.23 Ir – 2.84 Pb – 33.43