British Wootz Sword

Jeff Pringle · 5th August 2007, 04:56 PM

British blade steels were made by the blister/shear process and after 1740 increasingly via melting the steel in crucibles. When forged in a certain way, many steels made in a crucible can develop patterns akin to wootz if the right trace elements are present, but the carbon content would be much lower than in true wootz. In modern steel making it is considered a flaw and is called ‘alloy banding,’ however the mechanism is the same one that creates the beautiful patterns in wootz. The lighter lines in the pattern would be soft ferrite [or perhaps low-alloy pearlite?] rather than the super-hard cementite responsible for wootz’ legendary edge.
Due to seeing in this blade some 90 degree line intersections and a few isolated bold lines like in the right side of the second photo above, I’d guess it must be alloy-banded crucible steel rather than shear steel, but I’ve only seen a few examples of shear steel so I don’t know all the potential patterns it can exhibit.

5th August 2007, 04:56 PM	#5
Jeff Pringle Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 189	British blade steels were made by the blister/shear process and after 1740 increasingly via melting the steel in crucibles. When forged in a certain way, many steels made in a crucible can develop patterns akin to wootz if the right trace elements are present, but the carbon content would be much lower than in true wootz. In modern steel making it is considered a flaw and is called ‘alloy banding,’ however the mechanism is the same one that creates the beautiful patterns in wootz. The lighter lines in the pattern would be soft ferrite [or perhaps low-alloy pearlite?] rather than the super-hard cementite responsible for wootz’ legendary edge. Due to seeing in this blade some 90 degree line intersections and a few isolated bold lines like in the right side of the second photo above, I’d guess it must be alloy-banded crucible steel rather than shear steel, but I’ve only seen a few examples of shear steel so I don’t know all the potential patterns it can exhibit.