so you find yourself in 272 bc....

[Aemilius Paulus]

heh didn't know about that, wouldn't recommend trying to make it though it's severely unstable stuff.

Unstable only if sudden pressure is applied. You do not think making grainy gunpowder is dangerous, much less testing it??

but nitric acid...where would you get copper nitrate from in 272bc? a better source of nitrate would be saltpetre which is much easier to produce given the technology at the time

Well, as I said, I only mentioned stuff that I already know. I know it would be easier to obtain nitric acid from saltpetre (think of the gargantuan guano deposits of Chile) but alas, I do not know how to make nitric acid from that. I only read about producing it from copper nitrate, especially since I already have sulphuric acid. But I can always read more, and learn how to make it from saltpetre!

i really think your underestimating the amount of knowledge and expertise that goes into making these things, there's more to making steel that blowing air through molten iron.

Well, duh, of course you are correct, but the "duh" is there because you are sounding as if you did not read both of my previous posts. I never said I knew how to extract and work with titanium and nickel. I just said I will try, and see if it works. I have no idea how to work with them. But I do know the Bessemer process though. I studied it