1818 Article on Watering Persian Swords

[rand]

Article from the Annual Register in 1818

Method of Renewing the Giohar, or Flowery Grain of Persian Swords, Commonly called Damascus Blades, (By Mr S Barker, His Brittanic Majesty's Consul General at Aleppo)

(From the Same)

Having bought two Kermani Dabans, and perceiving that some parts of them had a yellowish
tint, by which they were disfigured, I employed a sword-cutler to renew their Giohar.

The operation was performed in my presence, before sunrise, which he said was necessary because two strong a light would prevent his distinguishing whether the blade were equally red hot; on the perfect equality of which depended the success of the process, for it was that failure which had caused the yellow spots above mentioned.

He prepared a wooden trough the length of the blades, four or five inches broad, with equal quantities of surege or sesamum oil, mutton suet, virgin wax, and Persian Naft (Naptha), or rather the dreags of the latter, it being too costly an article.

He began by making a charcoal fire in a small earthen vessel, which after being well alight, he strewed on the ground in the form of a blade, and put loose stones all round to keep it together.

He then fanned it till it was red hot all over, and laid the blade flat on the lighted coals, having first bent the handle for the convenience of holding it, by a pair of pinchers.

He then completely covered the blade with fresh charcoal unburnt, and continued to fan it with a large Turkish feather fan as equally and as forcibly as possible, until the latter charcoal had become as red as the first. When he judged (what experience alone can teach) that it was now sufficiently hot to be plunged into the trough above described, he seized the proper moment; and on this depends the success of the operation, for if the blade remain a little too long in the fire, the Giohar will be entirely effaced, or if it is not hot enough, or unequally so, it will have the defect that we are endevouring to remove.

When he plunged the blade into the trough, it seemed to me the color of a soldiers dirty coat, or cherry red. In plunging it he was anxious that no part of the blade should touch the composition but at the same instant the whole was immersed. It lay in the trough a few minutes to cool.

He then took it out and laid it upon the coals, fanning it an instant to set the grease that stuck on it on fire, and when it smoaked no longer, he let it again grow cool, and then scraped off gently with the back of a knife. that ashes of the stuff that still adhered to it.

the charcoal employed was in pieces of from half to three quarters of an inch square, more or less; the best sort is made of deal, and it must be fresh or virgin, for it will not do if it has been lighted and extinguished. I observed that he fanned the blade more at the thicker parts than towards the point.

The composition in the trough serves for a great number of blades, and is better the older it grows, requiring only to be replenished as the quantity diminishes.

The blade having been a little crooked in the tempering, it was strainghtened, and then gently passed on a circular whetstone. It was then polished. He laid it on a board, with a piece of wood forcibly rubbed emery powder and oil on it, and lastly, burnished it with a bit of iron till it was quite bright, and could not be distinguished from a common English sabre. The operation of polishing took up five or six hours.

He then made use of lime to take the off the oil, and was extremely careful not to touch it with his hands, as being free from grease is essential to its taking well the Giohar.

To secure that point further he rubbed tobacco ashes and water on it.

He then prepared a horse bucket full of clear water, and a small Turkish leaden drinking cup (porcelain or glass would do a swell, but no other metal other than lead). In this cup he dissolved in a few minutes a little zagh* and pure water.

Then with the ends of his fingers he basted the blade with rapidity up and down, and seeemed anxious that it should be served all equally, and as much as possible at once.

Every two or three minutes he washed the blade with the water in the bucket, and repeated the operation of the zagh water eight or ten times, that is untill he perceived the Giohar did not become more distinc after fresh tending with zagh.

He then wiped it dry and oiled it; and when his last operation is performed in the winter, the water in which the zagh is dissolved should have the chill taken off.

The names of the different sorts of damascus blades are as follow, classed according to their relative value:- 1. Kermani Daban 2. Lahori Kara Khorasan 3. Lahori Neiris 4. Dishi Daban 5. Herek Daban 6. Elif Stambool 7. Eakd Sham 8. Barjaz

*The zag made use of by the sword-cutlers here is procured from the mountains of Druzez, and from no where else; it is produced by a mineral spring near a place called Ghazir.

Khorasan 9. Sari hindi 10. Korun Hindi
There are swords also like Persian gun barrels, only plated or cased with the sort of steel that takes the Giohar; but they are easily distinguished by carefully examining the back of the sword.

The art of founding the metal of which the Persian blades are made is lost, although it is still met with in lumps, which show from their form that they were cast in moulds.*

These moulds are worked into blades for swords,daggers and knives, but sometimes not sufficiently malleable for any purpose, probably because the art of properly working them is also lost with that of their original cast or composition, for it appears not to be a simple of uncompounded metal.

end of article

Its very iinterested to read that in 1818 the art of making damascus blades was considered a lost art.

rand

[Emanuel]

Hi Rand, interesting article.

If I understood the process, the smith first annealed the blade and then rehardened it through an oil quench. Lastly he re-etched the blade to bring out the pattern. I got the impression that the author believed the entire process was necessary in order to get the pattern, but if I'm not mistaken the heat treatment was unnecessary for this purpose. Isn't the pattern a result of the initial cooling of the crucible ingot from liquid phase? I think the heat treat may have refined the grain structure but the pattern must have been inherently in the steel.

Wasn't wootz still being produced in India at this time?

Regards,
Emanuel

[rand]

Manolo,

Pretty much agree with everything you say, what I thought was interesting was that this was published in 1818 and had a description from the time of use.

Based on how we rewater blades today what is done in the article seems unneccessay......

On the other hand, what if that is how blades were truely rewatered at the time of use and we could reproduce an actual finish which any restorer of Persian blades will tell you is very, very difficult. Was just a very interesting article on a rarely published subject at that time.

The is another article from the same magazine on the rewatering of Persian gun barrels will post later, am a slow typer and takes me a while to copy these.

rand

[Emanuel]

Hi Rand,

It would indeed be nice to have this process applied these days. Ingredients might be hard to get though...Druze land is not the most accessible of places these days.

What is the name of the article? I might be able to get it through my university as we have access to loads of scanned literature from worldwide sources.

Emanuel

[rand]

Hey Emanuel,

Here is a link to the site with the article, if you have access to it where you can can copy would save a me lot of time typing.

http://books.google.com/books?id=znQ...88QjrJFll0iOR0

Or do a search for Persian firearms Annual Register.... rewatering will be in description.

rand

[DaveS]

Emanuel: This article is also in Elgoods Arms And Armor Of Arabia In The Eighteenth, Ninteenth And Twentieth Century. This is a very good source of information on the weapons of the arabian peninsula.......Dave.