Steel Question/Historical.

S

shane justice

Joined
May 12, 2003
Messages
1,606
This might be a question that is boring...

We know the Kamis use Mercedes springs...which translates 5160. A pretty forgiving steel for beginners like me....

....but what about before leaf springs were common?

What was the source for the steel then. Did they increase the content of thn carbon in iron...and use that...or did they use the famed Wootz from India and the middle east?

Mr Powell's book is on my list...maybe there is some mention...but this is a truly old form of blade. It pre-date alot of shapes...so what kind of metal were they using?

I got started on this idea when I read the mention of a Kami with a 200 year lineage.As Nepal is between India and China I wonder if they were trading in metals for khukuris? There must be some spoken record of the craft.

If I had to guess I would say they were doing a lot of folding and twisting like the old shotgun barrels to get really ugly non homogenous steel to blend enough for good blades. Wootz is pretty tough to make...hmmm.

Anybody wanna take a shot at this? Love to see some pics!
Shane
 
Since some makers use RR rails now and since those rails were around in the 19th century, I presume that source was used.

Where's John?
 
TAL is right, in a few books that I have read, rr rails where a common source of steel for alot of things. I will try and find that info.:D
 
From the information I have seen all the steel they used came from India, Tibet or China. They took steel anywhere they could get it and then determined what it was to be used for. A very busy trading system between all these country-states also included Burma, Assam, Bhutan and Sikkim and had been in place since early times. Many historians believe the finest steel came from India and went everywhere from there including the mideast.

Leaf springs came from the carriages introduced into India by the EICo in the 17thc.
 
John, Thanks for taking tme to answer this too simple question.

I wondered about the trade of metals in the Far East.

Buggy springs,...maybe axles too.

Are there any great Wootz Khukuris out there?

Shane
 
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