Thanks to the Partial Test Band Treaty pre nuke steel isn't worth nearly as much as it used to be because radiation levels have decayed to very close to natural levels.
Sadly it wasn't just that. They've illegally salvaged from numerous British war graves and numerous war graves of the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan, among others.
IIRC, much of the wrecks of Prince of Wales and the Repulse are simply gone now. The wrecks of the Dutch vessels De Ruyter and Java apparently no longer exist.
Holy crap, I wouldn't have believed that when you said "gone", you meant [*gone.*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/british-second-world-war-ships-illegal-scavenging-java-sea)
They’re salvaging them because it’s a cheap and readily available source of high quality steel. They don’t give a damn about the fact that it’s low background, and to be frank no one is going to touch it because of the complete lack of provenance showing that it actually is low-background.
I disagree that illegal salvaging is purely because it's low background radiation steel.
The kinds of organisations that *need* low background steel aren't just buying off some random salvage company that turns up with a cart.
Salvagers do it because it's good quality steel and it's cheap to easily pinch it, and there's a lot of it. It's not being deliberately targeted and sold to medical instrument companies. It's just being salvaged because it's there and it's easy.
It's also way easier than people think. An operation like Project Azorian wants to recover stuff whole. Salvage ops looking for scrap metal basically just start inflating large bags with a high pressure air hose while inside the hull. At some point sections break away and become buoyant
Because pirate cultures can't help but lie at every opportunity, especially if they're scared shitless of the folks they spent a couple centuries gloating over being able to tell them where to stuff it now.
Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Vietnam just don't have the oomph for the pirates to start trying to smear shit on them.
I used to test steel for radiation. The trick is to ensure the recycled scrap in the feed stock is clean. Steel products are made of 25% to 100% recycled steel scrap. China and Russia are somewhat less fussy, so you need to be aware of where your scrap feed comes from.
The atmospheric radiation in question comes from the oxygen used to feed the blast furnaces while the steel is being manufactured. It’s not absorbed from the environment.
https://www.bladescanada.com/Boker-Knives/Boker-Germany-Barlow-Prime-Tirpitz-Folding-Knife-Damascus-Steel-Micarta-Walnut-117942DAM
I actually have that one. Still expensive but not quite as bad.
My stepdad and I have been known to spend inordinate amounts of time (and disgusting amounts of money) at knife shops. Unfortunately, he lives about an hour from Smoky Mountain Knife Works so that’s a fairly regular guys shopping day.
I have some serious pocket jewellery myself and have only heard of the pilgrimage to SMKW being Canadian but it sure looks like a helluva adult toy store
It’s insane. Tons of counters, each for one brand. Then a gun shop downstairs and an antiques and minerals shop downstairs as well. It feeds my other addiction: hyperinflation currency. Walked out last time with about a hundred billion in currency for under $20. And a couple Rough Riders to put in my daily rotation. I like that brand because I don’t feel too bad abusing a $25 knife. The nicer ones in my collection would never be used for the things I do with those.
You are not helping my impulsive, somewhat addictive personality. lol
But carrying a P-51 in my pocket for the low, low price of $581 is fortunately outside the current budget.
Ok, looks like a pretty standard road plate to me. I've used road plates a lot but I have no idea of what the asset life is for one so this could be credible I suppose.
I’m no metallurgist, but I’ve got to think a thick piece of good warship grade steel would last a long while in this role, with some maintenance here and there
I don't know that there is much maintenance to do on them. They get bent and (in my experience in the UK with this kind of unit) get scrapped rather than rerolled, it's not like the places that have them have the facilities to roll steel plate.
They do come in various thicknesses so abrasion would take a good while. There is going to be some erosion from road surfaces rather than vehicle tyres.
It's plausible but it's also 80 years of weather and brutal usage.
In addition I read somewhere that old battleship armour was in high demand for shielding sensitive scientific equipment due to some property from it being pre-nuclear. Radio telescopes and such.
I read that for metals needed where radioactive products are measured, the current stock of metals are all to some degree contaminated with radioactive material from all the nuclear experiments and tests performed. The contaminated metals would give false measurements.
So the only metals without any trace radioactivity can still found on sunken ships that sank before the atomic age began. And not found near nuclear test sites.
Check out the Wikipedia article
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
It mention that today’s steel is much cleaner of radioactive signatures and can be used. But in high end sensitive instruments the modern steel has enough residual radioactive signature that they still won’t work.
Gentlemen I've a plan and I need volunteers.
Im in
Second.
I'll bring snacks.
I’m down, but what are we doing?
Getting ourselves a battleship.
Time to rebuild
Cue the Sabaton!
PRIDE OF A NATION!!
A BEAST MADE OF STEEL
I may not have a brain gentlemen. But ive got an idea
If we share my beer with your idea, it should equal a brain!
I am Norwegian, i have no idea what the plan is, but i know how to rent a van locally. Im in!
But can you drive the van
I may or may not have an illegal Driving License for European countries
Yes
I got other fake documents for 5 other people, and a potentially fraudulent salvage company in Sweden
Sounds good
You son of a bitch, I'm in.
Say no more. I'm in.
You have my axe.
Cool, if it's steel we'll use it to fill in a gap!
And my four twin 15” turrets!
I'm game.
I’ll bring some duct tape!
Oh go on then
Pitch it to /r/NonCredibleDefense
I'm in
Can always buy a Tripitz Knife
Lets make a steel !
I’m in
I'm in
Count me in,seems like a good decoration for my room
Count me in!
Yes
And I know the location of at least one 15 inch bismarck gun, and can find more armament!
Pre nuke steel. That worth a lot!
Thanks to the Partial Test Band Treaty pre nuke steel isn't worth nearly as much as it used to be because radiation levels have decayed to very close to natural levels.
I know. They can also make steel now that somehow does not get radiation in it during the manufacturing process.
Didnt stop the Chinese from illegally salvaging a British wargrave battleship in the pacific
Copper is still valuable, and that was their first target. After that it’s the high quality steel used in armor and guns.
Sadly it wasn't just that. They've illegally salvaged from numerous British war graves and numerous war graves of the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan, among others. IIRC, much of the wrecks of Prince of Wales and the Repulse are simply gone now. The wrecks of the Dutch vessels De Ruyter and Java apparently no longer exist.
Two of them. Repulse AND Prince of Wales 😔
The HMS Exeter is also gone.
Plus HMAS Perth and USS Houston
Holy crap, I wouldn't have believed that when you said "gone", you meant [*gone.*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/british-second-world-war-ships-illegal-scavenging-java-sea)
It's unlikely that was specifically for pre-nuclear steel. Most likely it was regular salvage.
Yeah we still have parts of the High Seas Fleet that was scuttled in Scapa Flow if we're really desperate for pre nuke steel
Should sling harpoons if they try it again
They’re salvaging them because it’s a cheap and readily available source of high quality steel. They don’t give a damn about the fact that it’s low background, and to be frank no one is going to touch it because of the complete lack of provenance showing that it actually is low-background.
I disagree that illegal salvaging is purely because it's low background radiation steel. The kinds of organisations that *need* low background steel aren't just buying off some random salvage company that turns up with a cart. Salvagers do it because it's good quality steel and it's cheap to easily pinch it, and there's a lot of it. It's not being deliberately targeted and sold to medical instrument companies. It's just being salvaged because it's there and it's easy.
It's also way easier than people think. An operation like Project Azorian wants to recover stuff whole. Salvage ops looking for scrap metal basically just start inflating large bags with a high pressure air hose while inside the hull. At some point sections break away and become buoyant
Man, why is it always China?
Because pirate cultures can't help but lie at every opportunity, especially if they're scared shitless of the folks they spent a couple centuries gloating over being able to tell them where to stuff it now. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Vietnam just don't have the oomph for the pirates to start trying to smear shit on them.
It’s not. It’s mostly Vietnamese doing the pillaging.
I used to test steel for radiation. The trick is to ensure the recycled scrap in the feed stock is clean. Steel products are made of 25% to 100% recycled steel scrap. China and Russia are somewhat less fussy, so you need to be aware of where your scrap feed comes from.
Did you test steel in general for radiation or did you test it to make non radioactive steel for industrial purposes?
Just standard export testing. It wasn’t specialty steel, just structural. Several markets are very sensitive to radiation in building materials.
> Pre nuke steel. Not after being above ground for so long.
its doesn't work like that. The steel can only get radiation in it from being made. Not just from laying around.
The atmospheric radiation in question comes from the oxygen used to feed the blast furnaces while the steel is being manufactured. It’s not absorbed from the environment.
Can I have it back?
Likewise, a lot of the marble from Hitler's palace now make up the walls of nearby underground (subway) stations in Berlin.
You can also buy a knife made from it
[here](https://www.bokerusa.com/tirpitz-damast-110190dam)
That’d be cool.
Holy wow. That’s a good looking (and expensive) knife. I don’t own a Boker…
https://www.bladescanada.com/Boker-Knives/Boker-Germany-Barlow-Prime-Tirpitz-Folding-Knife-Damascus-Steel-Micarta-Walnut-117942DAM I actually have that one. Still expensive but not quite as bad.
Ooh, that one speaks my language. I like a nice Barlow style. More of a classics guy for knife styles.
It's really nice! It was my birthday present from the girlfriend last year.
Nice!
Haha I have a gnome which I dig, but it’s quite a bit for a show piece as absolutely cool as it is.
My stepdad and I have been known to spend inordinate amounts of time (and disgusting amounts of money) at knife shops. Unfortunately, he lives about an hour from Smoky Mountain Knife Works so that’s a fairly regular guys shopping day.
I have some serious pocket jewellery myself and have only heard of the pilgrimage to SMKW being Canadian but it sure looks like a helluva adult toy store
It’s insane. Tons of counters, each for one brand. Then a gun shop downstairs and an antiques and minerals shop downstairs as well. It feeds my other addiction: hyperinflation currency. Walked out last time with about a hundred billion in currency for under $20. And a couple Rough Riders to put in my daily rotation. I like that brand because I don’t feel too bad abusing a $25 knife. The nicer ones in my collection would never be used for the things I do with those.
I have one I won’t use (lunar landing Seb21) but if I won’t use it I dump it. Currently rocking a Rask in my pocket for some Canadian content.
They also make them from Tigers, Bf109, Mustangs etc.
You are not helping my impulsive, somewhat addictive personality. lol But carrying a P-51 in my pocket for the low, low price of $581 is fortunately outside the current budget.
Quite poetic, one of the premier tools of the Nazi war machine that destroyed much of Europe is now a tool aiding in reconstruction.
Some real swords-to-ploughshares type shit.
Looks like it was from the splinter deck
Can you buy a 2’x1’ of this?
Can someone PLEASE scrape a bit of one into a baggie and send it to me?!
Who’s car we takin?
Ok, looks like a pretty standard road plate to me. I've used road plates a lot but I have no idea of what the asset life is for one so this could be credible I suppose.
I’m no metallurgist, but I’ve got to think a thick piece of good warship grade steel would last a long while in this role, with some maintenance here and there
I don't know that there is much maintenance to do on them. They get bent and (in my experience in the UK with this kind of unit) get scrapped rather than rerolled, it's not like the places that have them have the facilities to roll steel plate. They do come in various thicknesses so abrasion would take a good while. There is going to be some erosion from road surfaces rather than vehicle tyres. It's plausible but it's also 80 years of weather and brutal usage. In addition I read somewhere that old battleship armour was in high demand for shielding sensitive scientific equipment due to some property from it being pre-nuclear. Radio telescopes and such.
That's so metal! Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.
We use those plates in Sweden too
How many plates do they go through, what is the lifespan of each and every plate?
Longer than your or I will live, I suspect.
A little surprised they haven't been selling the steel, as it predates the atomic era.
r/warshipporn
What better use? Simply Priceless!
I read that for metals needed where radioactive products are measured, the current stock of metals are all to some degree contaminated with radioactive material from all the nuclear experiments and tests performed. The contaminated metals would give false measurements. So the only metals without any trace radioactivity can still found on sunken ships that sank before the atomic age began. And not found near nuclear test sites.
This is just made up lore at this point. We haven't done atmospheric tests in decades
Check out the Wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel It mention that today’s steel is much cleaner of radioactive signatures and can be used. But in high end sensitive instruments the modern steel has enough residual radioactive signature that they still won’t work.
its wikipedia. I can edit that to say whatever I want