Wootz

J

James Mattis

Joined
Oct 3, 1998
Messages
3,264
Al Pendray has managed to come close to duplicating the long lost art of making "wootz" or "Oriental Damascus" steel blades (as opposed to pattern-welded Damascus), starting with an ingot cooked up from iron and charcoal and some green leaves in an airtight crucible. Roselli of Finland www.roselli.fi , working on their own, is introducing some semi-production wootz puukkos made in a similar process. Their information is all in Finnish, but they say 1.7% carbon. Besides the attractive grain pattern created in the steel, what mechanical characteristics should one expect in a wootz blade? Harder? Better edge holding? Toughness and impact resistance?


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com

 
James
From the demos I have seen the pendrey wootz is very good in most tests in all catagories.
It holds a great edge and the grain structure is fantastic for cutting . I suggest you give a call to Al and ask for the stats. He is a great person and will bend your ear about this subject.
As for the Finish material I dont know...




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Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!





 
I've exchanged email with Roselli. They say they've made about 70 wootz knives so far. I'm thinking over ordering one frpm them to check it out. Cost is well over $300. They've also mentioned that they hope to offer wootz steel to makers in the future once they get their production going. The prices for their other knives are under the finnish pages in their website.

If I get the knife, I'll post a review.

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www.wilkins-knives.com



 
Hello Jim,

well I ordered one of those wootz steel hunting knives from Roselli today.

Can't wait to get it. I spoke on the phone with then and they can speak excellent english - in case anybody else wants to order from them.

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www.wilkins-knives.com



 
Got the two knives today from Roselli. The wootz knife really does sit well in the hand and the fine texture of the steel is interesting. Much subtler than pattern welded.

I'll post a more detailed review once I've had the knives longer.

Jim: did yours arrive yet? At least you won't have to pay that 22 % finnish sales tax. Ouch...

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www.wilkins-knives.com




[This message has been edited by Kevin Wilkins (edited 17 January 1999).]
 
My Roselli wootz "carpenter knife" just arrived.

roselli-wootz-x1.jpg


Here's a link to a larger detail image:
www.chaicutlery.com/roselli-wootz-blowup.jpg

And a black and white shot
www.chaicutlery.com/roselli-wootz-bw.jpg

I talked to Al Pendray yesterday and gave him the contact information for Roselli www.roselli.fi . He hadn't heard of the Roselli wootz project.





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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com

 
James,

The pattern on the Roselli blade is quite different from the AlPendray blade I have on hand which show very fine stripes of carbide.

I don't understand the words on the Roselli web-page, are they using the same method for preparing the steel ingot?

I've got the link that is quite interesting about "Wootz".

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9809/Verhoeven-9809.html

Joe Leung
 
Joe,

that's a really good link! I've seen the Moser collection in the Museum in Bern and it's worth a trip to the city to see it.

The Hunter model in wootz I have from Roselli has a much subtler pattern than the ones I saw in Bern. It also seems to be very hard/ I still haven't had time to do much cutting with the knife though.

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www.wilkins-knives.com



 
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