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Originally Posted by RhysMichael
While most of what you see is pattern welded, There are a few people making crucible steel today. There was a lecture on it and examples of it in Timonium last year. But I must completed agree that junk has been made in all ages.
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It's interesting, until this comment I'd actually forgotten that there is a difference between wootz Damascus steel and pattern-welded Damascus steel. Part of that is due to the way I was introduced to the subject.
My earliest interest in period weaponry was in the blades carried by the Vikings, who were carrying pattern-welded swords as early as 900 AD. They had no reliable source for high carbon steel, so what they did have they stretched by combining it with mild steel and even iron, twisting rods of each into a spiral beofr forging them together. There are also historical records from the time that indicate how highly prized true 'Damascus' swords were by the Viking traders who obtained them in the middle east (and if you don't think they were running around there, ask the caretakers of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul about the Viking Runes some graffiti artist scratched into one of the balustrades there!) The references I read at the time referred to the Vikings' efforts as 'Damascus' steel as well, and I honestly can't remember a single text that made a point of separating the two types. Time to refresh my memory I guess...
Fenris