[TheForge] Interesting Article

[steve Bloom]

At 04:18 PM 10/8/2008, Aubrey wrote:
>Andy,
>
>You may well be correct about the wootz not being folded.  My main 
>point was that it was a single billet of steel, whereas modern 
>"pattern welded" blades are made from two or more different types of 
>steel (which may or may not be folded).

Exactly -- wootz was the first crucible steel - homogeneous high 
carbon and it happened to have the other nice properties of damascene 
patterns when treated just right. Clearly superior to the blister 
steels of Europe.  What most of us knife makers do is essentially the 
same as the Anglo-Saxon/Viking tradition - and pretty much the same 
technique as the Japanese (but for the pretty rather than 
manipulating the carbon content into a hand-finishing/fully hardened 
sweet spot).  I've always suspected that the reason we use the same 
term (Damascus) is because European smiths in the Middle Ages didn't 
have wootz but did know how to make patterned steel - and the 
clientele was asking for 'Damascus' .

Steve Bloom (Ironflower Forge)