Luzon Bolo With Wootz Blade!

[kai]

Originally Posted by ibeam

I tried to take a close up of the blade and here it is.

Thanks for the pic, Ibeam! Ok, I see the pattern which you are referring to as wootz. However, could you please try to get an even clearer pic? Waiting for a completely overcast day does help... Since this may be such an unique piece, I'd love to get the documentation as good as possible!

The clean smooth steel in the bottom of the picture is the blade edge. Most of the patterning happens just above this hardened edge.

That's like fire-hardening a bronze sword's edge...

Actually, this lack of pattern may be a more compelling evidence that this really is wootz: Seems like the bladesmith was unaware of the requirements for forging wootz and thus destroyed the hard wootz edge during a futile conventional "hardening" step!

Maybe this blade was made from an imported wootz blank/blade? Is it possible to deduce from the pattern wether it was just filed into shape or is there any forging noticeable?

Sorry for being a pain!

Regards,
Kai