A Chosun era “hwa-po” from Cheonan.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
would anybody be able to tell me whether this is a real chosun era cannon or is it a replica?
Hwapos last forever. When the U.S. military captured a few in the late 1800′s they found out that the cannon’s casting date was in the 13th century.
This iron cannon has very little rust on it and is quite solid. It is a tribute to the skills of those that forged it since forging this type of iron is not a common skill.
Hey R.Elgin, can you confirm it was made from iron. In the picture the oxidation apears to have more of a bluish hue then a reddish colour. I had thought cannons were mainly made from bronze, but a quick wiki shows that iron was common and then superceded bronze.
The sign by the cannon said iron. It did look like iron to me and greatly resembled the photos of the iron pillar of Dehli in patina.
The slight blue tint is part of the saturation I used in Photoshop. I was trying to get closer to the odd finish which was kind of blue-black with hints of reddish oxidation.
Fair enough. Hmm, well casting technique, sacrificial anodes or impurities (possibly intentional alloying) that gave rust protection are all possible explanations for the longevity.
Impressive none the less for any iron based object to last that long because iron has such an unstable oxidative film.
Yeah, those old-heads had some knowledge and its always good to see it in odd places that most have forgotten about.
Here is another interesting page about that Delhi pillar:
http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_ironpillar.htm
Anyone wanna talk about why Korea had such good iron casting techniques? Korea had such great casting technology because of all the money that the Koryo (and Silla) Dynasty gave to Buddhist temples. The size, longevity and “purity” of tone of Buddhist bells being a key driver to the development of casting technology in Korea.
On the other hand, the Japanese had excellent forging technology due to their tradition of forging Samurai swords. Another weapon that required good forging technology was the arquebus. So, during the Imjin War Koreans had excellent (well, excellent for their time and place) cannons and the Japanese had great arquebuses.
@WangKon936
That’s an interesting thought I hadn’t considered. Still, don’t you think your idea seems to better explain why Korean bronze work may have improved during previous dynasties than why this cannon, if it is real, looks pretty good in 2010?
I believe the first Koryo cannons were made of bronze…
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