Is this Wootz?

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by RSWORD

Additional etching is not going to improve the grain.

From my experience, good etching can, in most cases, dramatically improve the contrast and enhance the pattern.

[RSWORD]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

From my experience, good etching can, in most cases, dramatically improve the contrast and enhance the pattern.

Of course that is true for a blade that is not in polish and etch compar dnto a blade that is as just polished and etched. All that is doing is showing the potental of the pattern that is already intrinsic to the blade. It is not improving the pattern, contrast or vividness from when it was originally made. A sword that has a burned out wootz pattern will always yield a burned out pattern no matter the quality of frequency of etch. In the example shown the blade is fairly clean without putting. The etch brought what microcrystalline pattern is there versus what was showing prior to the etch but the actual pattern is not going to get any better with subsequent etched. He might get some improvement in the consistency of the pattern maybe from an inconsistent or uneven etch the first time around but based on what I am seeing he will not get substantially better results.

[NavdeepBal]

Originally Posted by RSWORD

Of course that is true for a blade that is not in polish and etch compar dnto a blade that is as just polished and etched. All that is doing is showing the potental of the pattern that is already intrinsic to the blade. It is not improving the pattern, contrast or vividness from when it was originally made. A sword that has a burned out wootz pattern will always yield a burned out pattern no matter the quality of frequency of etch. In the example shown the blade is fairly clean without putting. The etch brought what microcrystalline pattern is there versus what was showing prior to the etch but the actual pattern is not going to get any better with subsequent etched. He might get some improvement in the consistency of the pattern maybe from an inconsistent or uneven etch the first time around but based on what I am seeing he will not get substantially better results.

Thank you guys for the feedback. I am 80% sure that the blade is wootz. Im gonna polish a part of the blade, etch and then take pics outdoors. Hopefully the pattern is a lot more visible.