Abdelhazred, I would think modern smelters could make steel of great quality if they so wished, 30 years ago I worked in an iron foundry, for high quality melts pig iron was the initial source... for lower quality stuff they would through in up to 10% scrap iron. {generaly it depended on whether the customer would test the product.}
HJK no not yet, it would need a light sharpening & then re.etching, that will happen at some time {the etching anyway.}, but not something I am in a rush to do... Ill do it when I have plenty of spare time & good clarity . {nothing else on my mind.} so I don't damage it , that would be disrespectful after its long journey!!
Although the blade profile would easily get to that point of sharpness I don't think it was an exhibition silk cutter, I think it was a slicer & perhaps even primarily a sticker {defiantly not a chopper.}{ Incidentally I believe T spines were often used to force through iron chain mail.} But literally if you dropped it from 3ft high I think it could pin ones foot to the floor!
Thanks Doug! I love it!
was indian steel truly the best in the world ?
Wow what a question! Threads have been closed & people banned on some forums in that argument!
But ill give you my take on it.
At the peak of its popularity say 1600 to 1866 {Although in existence since around 300 bc} when the British banned is further manufacture in India { supposedly to limit deforestation! But also around the time we started exporting vast amounts of Sheffield steel. {Seems nothing changes in Political economics} The best of Indian wootz was probably the best for weapons used against flesh. It sharpness is bity due to the carbide spots in the matrix.
Some wootz was better than others, Northen Indian wootz was the most sought after & was preferred by weapon smiths from Syria to Persia to Bengal.
But even different cakes of wootz could vary depending on skill of the crucible masters & a bad smith could make it weak by poor hammering out & folding skills.
The fanciest patterns that the smith can make like the prophets ladder, because of the removal of steell or depressing it against its longitudular grain can be much weaker, sadly.
Indian wootz is often 1.5 carbon, but usually tests at only 35 to 40 Rockwell because the testing measures the matrix not those hard little carbibes! { it contains many side elements as well.
Some modern steels would no doubt be better for hacking & chopping or for overall hardness & I am sure other qualities.
wootz required much skill to work, hand picked & sorted ore, leave & timber from particular trees, melted in sealed crucibles into small lumps, slowly cooled, then hammered out into bars then folded in half { all at fairly low tempratures.} to leave the join along the spine. {for greater elasticity etc.}
At any stages this could go wrong if the sorter, the caster or the smiths were less than exact.
So for me, yes the best Indian crystalline wootz, was the best for weapons used in the manner & place in time that they were.
I think Its watered surface & exactin forging also show the slow magic that made it!
spiral
... I was 23 and didn't know any better). Amazing how tough it was.
:thumbup: