I’m glad you found my comments to be helpful, I’ve been studying wootz for a while now (not as long as Pendray and Verhoeven, of course), and I think I might be forming some opinions on it
I make knives from crucible steel, occasionally for sale. Since everyone might have different definitions of ‘wootz’, and since phulad might be a more appropriate term, I’m starting to think crucible steel is the best term for now – but on this forum, wootz is the lingua franca, so to speak.
If you are in touch with Pendray, you should thank him for me for all the groundbreaking work he did with Verhoeven solving the mysteries of this metal. And I’d be curious to know if now, 12 years later, he thinks he patented the wrong process…
Jeff