Wootz kindjal - have you ever seen?

ALEX · 24th March 2010, 07:37 PM

Buendia,
This is a brilliant question (and of course a fantastic poem). Thank you for bringing it to the Forum.
As well known, bulat was a widely used term in Russia to identify high quality steel. First, I'd think this term would be commonly referred to just that - good quality, very strong and well forged steel, and not necessarily Damascus. Persian wootz blades were popular and highly regarded, and many Kindjals employed them with their locally made fittings. Not many Caucasian smiths were forging wootz, so I believe term bulat was used for both locally produced quality non-wootz blades as well as wootz trade blades (sort of to equal them in quality terms). I think Lermontov used "bulat" with no specific reference to "wootz" or Damascus (my personal opinion of course).

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24th March 2010, 07:37 PM	#2
ALEX Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 936	Buendia, This is a brilliant question (and of course a fantastic poem). Thank you for bringing it to the Forum. As well known, bulat was a widely used term in Russia to identify high quality steel. First, I'd think this term would be commonly referred to just that - good quality, very strong and well forged steel, and not necessarily Damascus. Persian wootz blades were popular and highly regarded, and many Kindjals employed them with their locally made fittings. Not many Caucasian smiths were forging wootz, so I believe term bulat was used for both locally produced quality non-wootz blades as well as wootz trade blades (sort of to equal them in quality terms). I think Lermontov used "bulat" with no specific reference to "wootz" or Damascus (my personal opinion of course).