Pattern welding

[mross]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I think that it is probably wrought iron that has been folded and welded a few times.

It has a similar appearance to shear steel, but I feel that it would be highly unlikely to find shear steel in this type of artifact.

Shear steel is made by taking blister steel and cutting it into short lengths that are then welded together and rolled out before making the shear steel into cutting implements. 19th century table knives are not infrequently made of shear steel. The process existed in Europe from at least the 16th century.

Blister steel --- used to produce shear steel --- was made by taking wrought iron billets and heating in clay pots with charcoal in a furnace, this raised the carbon content of the material, thus turning it into steel.

Wrought iron has a grain, and if you weld it together a few times before using it it has the effect of removing impurities and refining the grain of the material. I think that this is what we're looking at here:- wrought iron that has been welded together a few times.

Now that I can see the whole thing, I would suspect wrought as well, both are close.