How wootz blades were forged?

ariel · 20th September 2019, 04:18 AM

That is fully consistent with my “ scheme” that shows the final structure of the cooled down ingot: wootz at the bottom, junk on top.

I thought that seeing the internal structure of a wootz blade was kind of fun: not often do we have an opportunity to see cleanly broken wootz blade.

From the practical point of view, the crack at the spine of the blade is important: we often see patinated blades with no visible wootz pattern. But if we can detect a longitudinal crack at the spine, filled with wire or not, we can be sure that the blade is wootz and start polishing and etching it.

And you are correct: Nonikashvili is perhaps the best living wootz- maker.

Thanks for the comment.

20th September 2019, 04:18 AM	#3
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	That is fully consistent with my “ scheme” that shows the final structure of the cooled down ingot: wootz at the bottom, junk on top. I thought that seeing the internal structure of a wootz blade was kind of fun: not often do we have an opportunity to see cleanly broken wootz blade. From the practical point of view, the crack at the spine of the blade is important: we often see patinated blades with no visible wootz pattern. But if we can detect a longitudinal crack at the spine, filled with wire or not, we can be sure that the blade is wootz and start polishing and etching it. And you are correct: Nonikashvili is perhaps the best living wootz- maker. Thanks for the comment.