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To: humblegunner; Bacon Man; Hap
From about AD 900 to AD 1750, Damascus sabres were forged from Indian steel called wootz.

That's it. I have GOT to get me a wootz blade.

Mostly so I can tell people, "Yeah, it's made of wootz."
39 posted on 11/15/2006 2:40:39 PM PST by Xenalyte (Anything is possible when you don't understand how anything happens.)
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To: Xenalyte
That's it. I have GOT to get me a wootz blade. Mostly so I can tell people, "Yeah, it's made of wootz."

I believe Jim Hrisoulis occasionally makes his own, from scratch, wootz steel weapons. Try here.

He ain't cheap, however.

42 posted on 11/15/2006 2:46:51 PM PST by LexBaird (98% satisfaction guaranteed. There's just no pleasing some people.)
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To: Xenalyte

There is only a handful of people today who can make TRUE Damascus steel, that is steel made using the wootz process.
Most "damascus" steels today are really pattern welded steels made up of high and low carbon steel or iron.

In the wootz process iron and carbon are put into a closed
crucible and heated to melting temperature at which time the crucible is pulled from the fire and allowed to cool.
The resultant doughnut, for lack of a better term is then
reheated by itself, punched through the center into a true doughnut shape which is then cut and straightened out to make the blade material, it may then be pattern welded however True Damascus was never done that way, any pattern was the result of the smelting process.
The forging of the blade itself was very critical as regards
temperature and the final hardening and tempering process,
much more so than so-called damascus steels today.

As this was always a more or less oral tradition it was "lost" for hundreds of years, although I feel sure there
are written records in middle eastern repositories somewhere.

As a blacksmith I experimented with the wootz process and japanese sword making processes, including multipart billets
where high carbon is used for the blade, medium for the scales or sides and softer for the back. Also developed techniques for hardening to produce the "temper"line and various surface effects.

Some of the people I knew who followed this line of research ended up working for the federal Govt developing
tank armor etc, who if you just saw them you would think
hicks, hayseeds, hillbillys, but they knew more about
metalurgy than a lot of professors and knew it from a physical interface so that it was almost in their blood.

Tet68
American Art Forge.


54 posted on 11/15/2006 3:13:03 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Xenalyte
That's it. I have GOT to get me a wootz blade.
Mostly so I can tell people, "Yeah, it's made of wootz."

It might be spelled "Wootz" but its pronounced, "Throat-Warbler Mangrove".
/Python

75 posted on 11/15/2006 5:09:39 PM PST by Ghengis (Of course freedom is free. If it wasn't, it would be called expensivedom. ~Cindy Sheehan 11/11/06)
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