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Originally Posted by S.Al-Anizi
I had learned alot from this old man. First, that not all wootz is great as it sounds, some biyaadh (lit. 'whiteness', non-wootz blades) such as Wilhelm Clauberg blades, which he calls "Abu Askiri" (lit. Bearer of the Soldier), exceed in quality some zaraag (lit. blueness), wootz blades. He also generalises, that Indian wootz, is much better than persian wootz, even the famed assadollah blades, which he has many of.
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This opinion doesn't surprise me. Some time back when I was surfing the web I came across a dissertation by a couple of PH.D metallurgists about the origins of wootz steel (and I wish I'd saved that link!) that explained much of why the Indian wootz would be prized.
My memory is a bit rusty, so bear with me while I try and remember the particulars. It seems that at the time of wootz's first appearance, India was the center for the mining and smelting of iron ore as well as producing billets of steel. The ore deposits that were the source for wootx steel had natural impurities in the ore that produced the patterned blades.
In addition to being the source of Indian wootz, India actually provided the steel used by early Middle Eastern smiths to make their blades. Billets of steel travelled on the Silk Road from India to the Middle East. It was later on, when the deposits in the original mines petered out or changed that the smiths had to experiment to create their own patterned wootz steel, but it was never quite the same as the originals from India. I believe that the reason the Indian blades continued to do well was that, being close to the source, the Indian metalsmiths had a better chance of duplicating the impurities after the ore changed.
Anyway, that's what I remembered when you mentioned your source's preferences for Indian over Persian wootz. I will hunt for that article, but it's been so many years I don't know if I'll be able to track it down.
Fenris