Wootz Shamshir

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

And I certainly have seen, and maybe even have one, swords made of at least two layers of wootz steel.

But maybe I am wrong about that...

Hello Marius,

you may be right. Lord Egerton describes a technique in his book (Indian and Oriental Arms) were two bars of steel are connected with fire welding, to improve the steel characteristics. But the structure of the technical parts of the book is a little confusing. So it is unclear whether he means wootz or laminated steel. He writes like a man, who has seen the process from a distance without explanations. So there are some corrections in the footnotes of later editions.

Laminated steel means steel which is folded to homogenize and refine the inner structure and bring the carbon content to the perfect level (~0,85%).

For example if you have antique pattern welded steel, both or all types steel are laminated before.

The failures could result from the treatment of the ingot before forging out the blade, during forging out the blade or maybe they had forgotten techniques, in which they were able to make fire welding with wootz at lower temperatures.

If you are realy interested in this topic, I have some links to a very good modern smith from Finland. He is able to make wootz like in the 18th ct., wonderful watered steel, but not as perfectly even as in old days.


Roland