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Old 25th August 2005, 12:01 AM   #22
kai
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,255
Question

Quote:
Originally Posted by RSWORD
I once had a Japanese sword that had a blade that had been forged from railroad steel. The area around the hamon where it had been heat treated had a very wootz-like appearance to it but it was not forged from a wootz ingot but rather the railroad rails which due to age and heavy wear created a high carbon steel.
Hi Rsword,

How extensive was this area? In the current example the wootz-like pattern extends well towards the back of the blade (cp. the manipulated pic above) and I have a hard time to imagine that this could be achieved by merely heat-treating the edge. However, I've been wrong before...

Regards,
Kai
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