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Hello,
A thought about iron/steel in the Indian context. We use the terms "wootz" and "pulad/bulat" to refer to crystalline crucible steel produced in India and Central Asia. Ann Feuerbach has outlined the difference between the South Indian crucible steel tradition, and the Central Asian one. Then we know the Hindi words for iron is लौह "lauha" or लोहा "loha", the root for the word "lohar" - blacksmith. We know the Sanskrit word for steel फौलाद "phaulada/faulada" and the Hindi adjective फ़ौलादी "steely". What do we know about blades showing pattern welding? Are there documented terms for it? In the older pieces we basically have bladesmithing done through forge-welding of different bars of iron with different carbon content in a carburizing or reducing fire. The carbon migrates throughout and forms a more homogeneous whole with relatively higher carbon content. In the literature/primary sources, are pattern welded blades still referred to as fauladi, or are other terms with qualifiers for "loha"? Emanuel |
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#2 |
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Emanuel,
I think it is an interesting question, although I must say that my researches so far, has not made me tuch the subject. I will see what I can find out, and I do hope that it this time will be a serious discussion. Jens |
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I hope so too Jens.
Egerton mentions "jauhar" when discussing the production of gun barrels: Quote:
In this case the term "jauhar/johar" refers to the pattern in the steel. The same term is often used to refer to wootz pattern. The word "jauhar" seems to mean "precious" and often refers to "jewel". Indeed in Hindi, जौहरी "jauhari" means "jeweller". Years ago Dom traced "jauhar" to the Arabic "ga'howara" meaning precious. So we have a possible term for the patterning, but not for the welding aspect. |
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Interesting that Rawson, in his book on Indian Swords did not distinguish ( was ignorant of ???) crucible and mechanical Damascus.
Was he unaware of metallurgical difference or were the same terms applied to both in the archives of Victoria & Albert Museum? |
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So historically in the Persian and Arabic world, what I think might have been early forms of wootz swords were called shamshir e Hindi or saif e Hindi, meaning Indian sword or sword from India. This term is used in Shahnamah about 1000 ago and in early Islamic books earlier than that. The word for steel in both Arabic and Farsi is FolAd, also spelled as PolAd in Farsi since Arabic lacks a (P) in the their alphabet. It is likely that the term had gone to the Arab world from Farsi (also called Parsi, again the lack of P in Arabic); and quite possibly it originated in India, or maybe not, besides the point. Now I am not sure where the word (wootz) comes from and frankly don't care, since I take it at the face value for it being the word describing crucible steel. Now the word Jawhar,(not jAw) or the different variants of its spelling, means gem, JawAher is the plural form. Jawhar also means essence, and the Farsi the word (dAr) means with, the owners of, containing and so on, combined creating the word jawhardAr, which could mean with essence. So What I am saying is folAd e jawhardAr should mean steel with essence, the essence being the crystalline formations in the steel.
Also Damascus steel swords were and know known as Shamshir e Damishqi (Damascus) |
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Nice summary.
But the question that Emanuel asked was about any special term for mechanical damaskus. Indians made a lot of it, and some examples were highly sophisticated. Were such blades distinguished from wootz and plain steel? |
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Actually Ariel you bring me to one reason for my questions
![]() Was there any such thing as plain steel? Besides crucible and pattern welding what other methods were there? We do know that some crucible came out without pattern but it was still crucible. This is excluding the European trade blades that were "plain" steel. Last edited by Emanuel; 24th October 2015 at 02:06 PM. |
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Earlier in "Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour" Egerton uses "jauhar" specifically referring to the pattern in crucible steel.
Quote:
You seem to confirm this AJ, that in the Persian context, "Jawhar" refers to the patterning or "watering" effect. The question remains, was there any distinction between the two methods, or were they both "folAd e jawhardAr " or "pulad/fulad" + "jauhar/jawhar/johar" -steel with more or less good pattern? |
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Surely, forging crucible steel at high temperatures would eliminate the pattern and the final product would become "plain" However, Indians also used furnaces that produced bloomery iron, i.e. plain steel. Infinitely more economical, quicker and simpler than wootz. I do not see much mechanical difference between plain steel and wootz. Indeed, plain European blades were highly valued in India since the Contact, and modern steels leave wootz in the dust. My guess is that wootz was highly prized primarily for its esthetic ( johar) appeal mixed with highly developed Eastern sacral imagery and the effort that went into its production. Not for nothing do we read about Japanese and Indonesian smiths forging a single blade in several weeks and artificially delaying the final product. Caucasian smiths were making a plain shashka blade in a couple of days, but refused orders for a damascus one: far too much coal and far too much effort. Last edited by ariel; 24th October 2015 at 04:36 PM. |
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While I have not seen "saif e hindi", I have seen "saif-al-hind" mentioned as the Arabic term for Indian swords. Cultural Forum, Volume 8, Special Number On Mussology, India, Ministry Of Education. (left quote) Sind Quarterly, Volume 10, Mazhar Yusuf, 1982.(right quote) Last edited by estcrh; 25th October 2015 at 06:25 PM. |
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estcrh,
When you quote someone, I think it would only be fair to the author and the reader, if you give the source. Emanuel, I think I have found something of interest, although it does not have anything to do with the names. James Allan and Brian Gilmour: Persian Steel. The Tanavoli Collection. Oxford University Press, 2000. The quotes are written by Brian Gilmour. A spearhead from the 5th century BC was excavated at Deva Huyuk, Syria, and the blade was made from different layers of iron of different quality. Page 43. "When part of this spearhead was mounted, polished and etched, it revealed the relief-map effect of a layered structure which has been both distorted by forging and partially ground away at a slight angle. Structures like this have the potential to produce a decorative, patterned effect, given suitable grinding, polishing and etching of the surface, and it seems not unreasonable to suggest that this might be a very early example of a pattern-welded structure." Page 77. The patterns on the blades of such weapons, at least of those from the 5th-11th centuries, derive from combinations of different iron alloys welded together, whereas the pattern of watered blades made from Eastern crusible steel, in particular wootz, derive from a dispersion of cementite particles in a ultra high-carbon steel. The two types of pattern are sufficiently different to suggest that the technologies that made them developed and were practised quite seperately for the most part (pattern-welded sword construction is known in the area of Malaysia which was also the probable source of the fulad swords of Qal'ah mentioned by al-Kindi), although the appearance and supposed qualities of Western pattern-welded swords may have had some influence on the types of pattern produced by Eastern steelsmiths." I just thought of something. It is fantastichen reading the text above to realise, that when we have a pattern welded sword in out hands, from maybe the 15th century this technique had been used for about a thousand years - improved all the time no doubt. Somewhere I read, that when making pattern welded blades all sort of iron was used, like old horse shooes, nails and whatever iron they could lay their hands on. This would of course give a blade with a very different carbon content. Last edited by Jens Nordlunde; 25th October 2015 at 09:55 PM. |
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Sind Quarterly, Volume 10, Mazhar Yusuf, 1982. Cultural Forum, Volume 8, Special Number On Mussology, India, Ministry Of Education. |
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Surely, forging crucible steel at high temperatures would eliminate the pattern and the final product would become "plain"
Yes Ariel, that was what hapened when they took ingots to England, and let thesmiths try to make wootz - it did not work. Jens |
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My understanding that any steel blade was defined as made of "loha": steel in West India .
This comes from consultations with my Indian colleagues. One of them consulted with her parents, retired language professors in India. They specifically stated that they were uninformed about terminology used in East India; thus my rather awkward first paragraph. They also stated that the word pulad was an adopted term from Farsi, and also referred to just steel in general. I could not elucidate from them whether there was a special term for mechanical damaskus, but that might have been a result of their rather commonplace ignorance of metallurgical terminology. I am sure 99% of American language professors also wouldn't know the correct answer in English:-) |
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