Restauration of antique oriental Damascus / Wootz blades

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Roland_M

Hello Jens,

I have tried out a lot of etchants and in my honest opinion the original Zag (Iron + Sulfur but not Vitriol!) is still the best etchant. Difficult to work with, but fantastic results, if one do it right . Very good for pattern welded steel and wootz. Similar results like the original treatment.

The Dha/Dao from Sajen was recently etched with Zag for example.

But everybody has different experiences and preferences.


Roland

Hello Roland,

Also using Nital I got results absolutely identical to (by no means discernable from) originally etched blades.

I got a magnificent black Kara Taban wootz kard that had a lighter area near the hilt so I had it polished (basically just cleaned the old etching with Pre-lim) and re-etched and got exactly the same I had before: a magnificent black Kara Taban pattern and much lighter area near the hilt where the etchant didn't appear to have the same effect (I assume because of different heat treatments to the blade, that led to different micro-cristalline structure of the steel).

Besides, Nital is very easy and reasonably safe to work with.


Maybe once I get home I will post some photos of my older results (but I know you also got excellent results with Zag)

PS: In the next future I will have to etch a few of my new aquisitions and I may make the effort to document the process with Photos.