Originally Posted by
george wilson
Charles,the Angel swords appear to have real Wootz steel in them(not the pattern welded stuff misnomered Damascus). I can't say I'm crazy about the workmanship,but genuine Wootz is the superior blade material. The real Wootz is not impressive to look at. It just has little sparkles of carbide in it. The carbides are in a soft matrix,making Wootz swords very tough. This process was finally re discovered by scientists back in the 70"s,IIRC. They heated high carbon steel up only to red,and ran it through powerful rollers,reducing its thickness to 1/8 of the former. Heating it only to red does not let the carbides melt. Then,they get crushed into tiny particles surrounded by softer steel. Of course,the originals were hammered down to do the same thing.
Believe it or not,I had begun making steel engraving chisels doing this same thing before I read about the rediscovery. I cannot recall what my reasoning was by now. It made great engraving chisels. However,hammering on only red hot high carbon steel was hurting my bad shoulder. I hired a blacksmith to hammer me a bunch. He,too,complained about the steel being very hard to hammer. I took an engraving chisel over to the Gunsmith Shop in the museum. They started driving the chisel up the tang of a file. When it reached the hardened area,I told them to go ahead. The chisel cut more than 1/8" into the hardened part of the file before the tip broke off,to their amazement!
European smiths heated steel to a much higher temperature,which made it MUCH easier to forge. But,the carbides melted and re formed into a crystalline matrix upon quenching,leaving a hard,but brittle blade which had to be softened by tempering. Wootz can be left fully hard without being brittle as glass.
These blades are good for cutting flesh. Used on wood,they would develop a fine,irregular toothy edge because the softer steel in between would wear away some,leaving the carbides sticking out proud.
For those interested in learning more about Damascus type steel, here's an article from the Journal of Metallurgy, although I don't know if it's the final word. I think research is still being done on how it was produced. As George points out, the term "Damascus steel" is widely used today to refer to steel that was not made from Wootz. The article is about original Damascus steel.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 04-28-2013 at 12:33 PM.
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