What is Damascus steel?
We often see the question “what is Damascus steel” and the next question, “how do I make it” or “where do I get it”. In an attempt to answer this question, I’ve put together several responses that have shown up in the past. ————————— From: dgerty@cclink.draper.com (Dave Gerty) Wadsworth, Kum and Sherby wrote a good article in Metal Progress, June ’86, presenting the welded Damascus and Japanese steels as well as the original wootz material. Sherby and Wadsworth wrote a very readable 6 page article in Scientific American (Feb 1985). Most modern and medeival European Damascus steel is pattern welded, but the original material was thermomechanically processed from wootz to produce the pattern. To paraphrase/plagarize a little: Damascus steel is named for the place where Europeans first encountered it during the crusades. The steel itself was made in India, where it was known as wootz. It was traded in the form of castings or cakes about the size of a hockey puck. The Ind
During the Crusades, the European armies returned to Europe with stories of all sorts of booty. Much of this was in the form of goods unavailable in Europe. These included a variety of dies, silks, spices, feathers, fabrics, candles, books, and other luxury goods, but the most valued of all the prizes in the Crusades were the swords used by the Muslim elite. These were far sharper, stronger, and more flexible than those of the European armies, and this superiority was naturally exaggerated in legends to the point where it was claimed that they could cleave thick stone, or more elegantly, cut through a silk ribbon which was dropped over them with only the ribbon’s own weight pushing the sword through. Swords of Damascus steel were characterized by complex “watered” patterns on the surfaces of the metal. Such patterns can result from a number of different metallurgical processes, but is generally an indication of the presence of numerous layers of metal of varied strength, hardness, and
