Damascus or damascening?

spiral · 25th November 2013, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raf

There seem to be some ingots of suposedly old wootz steel around at the moment . Described as Indo Persian , in the form of fairly regular balls about 20 centimeters diameter and about 1 kilo weight. It would be interesting to section one and etch to see how any pattern , if it exists at all , compares with finished blades . Can't post any images as these are currently for sale.

Most such "ingots" offered for sale are actualy mill balls from quarry's etc. & although some have a pattern due to alloys used etc., there certainly not likely to be wootz.

spiral

Raf · 25th November 2013, 11:03 AM

Thanks for that . Clear and very helpfull. My naive observations were based on practical experience of traditionally case hardening gun parts not on any real understanding of metallurgy. If I follow the description of wootz manufacture given by one 19 th century observer... That is chop the iron into very small bits and pack it in a crucible with finely chopped wood ; seal it with clay and heat it for some time , I know that what I am going to get is a lot of bits of soft iron with a very hard skin of higher carbon steel on the surface. The longer I keep it heated the thicker this coating will get but it is unlikely to affect the core of each lump which will remain as soft iron. I might reason if I got the temperature as high as I could all the lumps might fuse together but not actually become molten. If I then bashed it around to consolidate it my orriginal little lumps each now coated with a skin of high carbon steel are going to get distorted and broken up and , depending on how I manipulate the lump , could end up appearing as bands or layers of hard steel in a matrix of softer iron. Are things sometimes that simple ?

25th November 2013, 11:03 AM	#2
Raf Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 252	Thanks for that . Clear and very helpfull. My naive observations were based on practical experience of traditionally case hardening gun parts not on any real understanding of metallurgy. If I follow the description of wootz manufacture given by one 19 th century observer... That is chop the iron into very small bits and pack it in a crucible with finely chopped wood ; seal it with clay and heat it for some time , I know that what I am going to get is a lot of bits of soft iron with a very hard skin of higher carbon steel on the surface. The longer I keep it heated the thicker this coating will get but it is unlikely to affect the core of each lump which will remain as soft iron. I might reason if I got the temperature as high as I could all the lumps might fuse together but not actually become molten. If I then bashed it around to consolidate it my orriginal little lumps each now coated with a skin of high carbon steel are going to get distorted and broken up and , depending on how I manipulate the lump , could end up appearing as bands or layers of hard steel in a matrix of softer iron. Are things sometimes that simple ?