[MR] Real Wootz / Damascene / Damascus Steel

Thu Jun 7 17:10:19 PDT 2001

A few days ago I got a bit diverse in one of my discussions on
the Medieval-leatherworking list and mentioned that it was only
in the last twenty years that the Medieval Wootz of the type
that once travelled the India to Damascus route had been 
rediscovered after about 150 years of European attempts at 
imitations.

Someone requested that I ramble on a bit. As I generally have
documentation for my opinions (but not time to find it usually) 
I shall give you lucky other people some sources to research it
yourself. Assuming this means anything at all to you. If it
doesn't then I apologize for wasting your time.

I have about fifty large folders on diverse subjects besides
the library. Fortunately I had the time at one time to put a 
number of articles into a couple of fat ones on knives and 
swords. These are taken from various magazines and sources. 
The ones from the last few years are not separated out and 
filed so I shall not be messing with them. They're in stacks 
of magazines mostly. I suppose it could give you an insight
into how well I follow my interests...

Easiest found will probably be:

"Damascus Steels" by Oleg D. Sherby and Jeffrey Wadsworth
in: _Scientific American Volume 252: pp.112-115, February 1983_.
This is a general history with illustrations of enlarged steel
microsection, a Persian Scymitar, and an illustrated method of
the production of wootz steel.
	In their citations they give:
	_A History of Metallography_ by Cyril S. Smith.
		U of Chicago Press, 1965
	"On the Bulat - Damascus Steels Revisited 
		by Jeffery Wadsworth and Oleg. D. Sherby
		in: _Progress in Material Science, Vol. 25, pp.35-68.
		1980. A Bulat is the cake of wootz steel.
	"Damascus Steelmaking" by Jeffery Wadsworth and Oleg D. Sherby
		in: _Science, Vol. 218, No. 4570, pages 328-9,
		October 22, 1983.

Jeffrey Wadsworth (at least at that time) was professor of Materials
Science at Stanford, and Wadsworth later went to work at Lockheed
Aircraft's Research Laboratory. What started them on their quest in
1975 at Stanford was a search for superplastic steels, ones with 
grain 200 times finer than commonly machined steel for use in 
forming steel and then cooling it - thus making it stronger in use, 
quicker to make, and cheaper to produce - gears and engine mountings 
for example. They didn't realize what they had reproduced was 
Damascus until a listener at one of their lectures informed them 
and they subsequently researched it. They obtained a patent in 
1976 for the material.

This is again written up in:
"Rediscovered - Supersteel of the Ancients" by James Trefil in:
Science Digest - February 1983, pp. 38-40 and p. 108. This discusses
their earlier findings of rolling out the steel at 2050 degrees
F, and working it at 1200 degrees F. There is also a bit of folklore
in this article, quenching in a live Nubian or urine are mentioned.

This later also showed up in an Associated Press Article by
Michelle Locke "Damascus Steel may have resurfaced" that I didn't
record the date of. This one mentions the above two researchers,
but adds another pair of similar questors - Florida knifesmith
Al Pendray and Iowa State University metallurgist John Verhoeven,
who used more traditional methods. This mentions a mixture or
Iron and possibly milkweed as ingredients in the crucible.

A somewhat better article that mentions the later pair appeared in
_Blade_ Magazine in August 1992, pp.52-5 & pp.96-7 & 100 entitled:
"Breakthrough - How the Ancients Made _Real_ Damascus" and
which _I_ take to be more authentic than laboratory conditions
and modern rolling mills. The article was by Al Pendray, a
famous master bladesmith, and W.E. Dauksch, and J.D. Verhoeven.
(It also mentions the publication of a book called _On Damascus
Steel_ by Dr. Leo Figiel, which was then available for $37.50
from Blade, POBox 22007, Chattanooga, TN 37422, USA.) This contrasts
the two techniques, the industrial one, and the small scale one,
involving crucibled steel, which has also been patented. It's 
fairly well illustrated and includes further citations in 
journals by Wadsworth and Sherby.

I know that I have seen further articles on Pendray and Verhoeven
since then refining their technique yet further. Pendray was
mentioned earlier in an article in Blade Magazine July-August
1987 called the Wizard of Wootz by Daryl Meir, and earlier yet
in Blade Magazine September/Oct '82 by Meir again in an article
Entitled Damascus Steel - Wootz Revisited. In this article 
Robert C. Job of Hawthorne, NJ, USA is working with Al Pendray
and Stephen Swertzer of Williston, Florida. Mr. Job is the
principle subject of this article though and he has a further
method for producing crucibled wootz steel, also patented.

Pendray and Verhoeven are the people I associate with true
modern Damascus, but that is a personal opinion.

Meir also wrote an article on entitled "Damascus Steel - A
Definition" in Blade Magazine, July-August 1982, in which
he tries to set forth an accurate description of what should
be considered true damascus steel, contrasting it's historical
methods of manufacture with the modern imitations. I don't 
know how many readers of this actually read Knives Illustrated
or Blade Magazine but there are a couple of dozen ways to
make modern damascus involving state-of-the-art modern,  
very high technology methods. Most modern jewelers have very 
little at all on some of the modern blade artisans, there 
probably isn't a technique or material in jewellery or machining 
they aren't exploring or haven't explored. I get Lapidary 
Journal and some other gem and metalsmithing magazines and
I can tell you there is one hell of a high state of art done.

Smiths can literally spell their names or logos or other artworks
clear through the steel - multiple times using various methods. 
Mixing nickel and steel, or using steel cable, or using steels of
mixed carbon content is not the same thing as using wootz steel,
nor is wootz made the same way, or forged the same way as it's
more modern imitations that use the name Damascus.

An earlier article on "The Manufacture of Mediaeval Damascened
Knives" by J. Piaskowski appeared in the Journal of the Iron
and Steel Institute, Vol. 202, July 1964, pp. 561-8. This 
investigates the manufacture and pattern in medieval European
imitations of Damascus steel in Poland. An interesting thing
in this article is the cross sections, and a newly ground,
polished and etched side of one knife showing that the Polish
knives had damascene patterns on the upper fatter portion of
the knives (which in at least one instance was very pretty),
and a higher carbon edge of uniform steel welded on below it.

In _Science_, Volume 216, No.4543, 16 April 1982, pp 242-3
Cyril Smith of M.I.T. discusses the historical methods and literary
history of imported Damascus in the west - citing Giambattista
della Porta, in _Magiae Naturalis XX_, 1589, London english
translation, 1568, and Joseph Moxon's references to it in
Mechanick Excercises, London 1677, describing it's working
properties at a blood red heat, its highly prized properties
as punches, and how it would crumble at higher heats. He also
references his own work - History of Metallography- and others
specifically Breant (1820's)and Faraday.

In _Science_, Vol. 218, no. 4570, 22 Oct. 1982 Sherby and
Wadsworth dispute Smith's claim that properties of damascus
steel were well known in the 19th century.

Apparently the 1980's were a hot time in the steel re-discovery
field. Three patents at least.

An interesting history of Damascene steel may be had in an 
earlier work "Damascene Steel" in _Journal of the Iron and
Steel Institute, Vol. 97 pp.417-37, 1918. The author traces
numerous oriental techniques and says the process extends
centuries back before Christ. Gives a nice long historical 
discussion.

I've entirely left out the imitation damascus steels and
their widely varied methods. They are indeed awesome, but
they are not wootz. (This in no way means any disrespect to
Dr. Hrisoulas, metallurgist PhD, master bladesmith. I own
two of his books, but not the one on Patternwelded Blades.
Jim Hrisoulas is known as Master Atar in the SCA and well 
respected for his knowledge.) It is only considering the 
rediscovery of wootz by various modern others. 

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