Wootz - The True Damascus Steel?

[@NFTI]

It's only Wootz if it's grown in the Woot region of France, otherwise it's just called sparkling Damascus.

[@alyksandr]

Sigh, europeans

[@kermitthepog7063]

Beat me to it 😅

[@kb9oak749]

The original woot iron was mined in a specific area in India. It was then processed in Damascus Syria and made its was to Europe.

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

The first comment was funnier.​@@kb9oak749

[@edwardfletcher7790]

​​@@kb9oak749Exactly ! Somebody doesn't know their history... LoL "Grown" ! LMAO🤣

[@gregprice5524]

I started forging 13 years ago on learning from youtube and locally, its been a wild ride seeing how the Internet is still pushing the avalible info higher and higher. Great video thanks.

[@piccalillipit9211]

I started to learn tailoring of historical mans suits from KZbin about 6 years ago. Eventually I paid the money for a Saville Row level private tuition program. I was shocked to descovered I had leqarned 85% of it for free already from KZbin.

[@TyrellKnifeworks]

This is a great study, thanks! Great work by all, particularly Spencer on making and providing this Wootz!

[@HeavyForge]

Thanks Denis!!

[@youretheChrist]

​@@HeavyForge you're the one bringing back the real Damascus? Good job, sometimes i wonder if the first Bowie maker used something similar

[@Babymoonblades]

Thank you so much for doing this. This will be a great place to send people who constantly rattle on about wootz being some type of indestructible super steel.

[@matthewf1979]

I like what FZ Knives does with his crucible “Wootz” He uses modern steels from drill bits/tool steel types mixed with powdered steels, carbon and other alloying agents. Beautiful patterns that have got to be much tougher than historical wootz.

[@Bob_Adkins]

I love FZ's videos and knives too, but the secret sauce is the modern steel powder alloy he adds to the scrap metal. Just the powder alone will make a great blade.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

There's a couple of research groups recreating real wootz Damascus, then analyzing the effects of different material and process variables on the output steel. Not just "uSe ToUgH bItS GeT tOuGh MeTaL".

[@valphaliahoopes2386]

@@Bob_Adkins

[@69Buddha]

Well, we all know that you can't get the *legendary* hardness without quenching it in the blood of your enemies, so there's your problem. Seriously though -- great video, great scientific approach, and I'd love to see more with other combinations for a "better, modern wootz."

[@lweismann]

The nice thing about this fact is that anyone whose blood you quench steel in without prior permission will very likely become your enemy, immediately…

[@Gwarrie1]

Makes me think of that verse in an old Christian Hymn: "Jehovah bid His sword awake Oh Christ it woke 'gainst Thee Thy blood its flaming blade must slake, Thy heart its sheath must be."

[@MNR-x4k]

Tha poss. Contaminate… & blood has irn in it… 🤔😈

[@gautamanand6053]

Thank you for highlighting our work!

[@brendonmakeiv8406]

I always enjoy your content. Your website has helped me a lot in understanding metallurgy in general. Ive learned more about metallurgy from your videos/website than I have from any of my university material science courses and really appreciate how you put to rest a lot of the debates about what is best wether it be damascus, super-steels, etc. I look forward to seeing what you do next👍

[@IPostSwords]

Very good video. One nice inclusion is the acknowledgement that there is a vast variety of wootz compositions as well as heat treatments, each with vastly different material properties

[@glennchartrand5411]

Wootz reputation stems entirely from the fact that it was a decent steel when everything else was crap....oh and it looked beautiful.

[@williamsdesigning1949]

You're a badass man. I remember taking to you and getting help from you on Blade smithing forums like 10 years ago

[@Gwarrie1]

Very interesting! I read a scholarly article some years ago where it was mentioned ancient Wootz probably had a common origen in India, where they had some pretty advanced smelting techniques (apparently there were furnaces built atop hills with a venturi type air inlet that worked very well with the prevailing wind and allowed for superior smelting at higher volumes). Anyhoo, that article mentioned trace amounts of tungsten as well as manganese found in the steels that were tested.

[@devindodge8648]

Thank you so much for your research data. This is honestly incredible.

[@youretheChrist]

This is the video i was looking for all these years

[@Arcturious-No_More]

If "Wootz" is referencing the ancient material - then I think making it with modern methods in bulk would affect the term used - like lab grown gems vs natural. Your tangents were not a distraction and appreciated in fact as it's hard to balance the myth of steel with the practicality of modern science.

[@acid6urns]

we can obviously make it the original way that just makes no sense to do soz

[@ThomasWalker-m2y]

It's only WOOTS IF YOU GROW IT 150 FT BELOW THE SURFACE OF AN ICE GLACIER IN WOOTS ALASKA

[@emeraldplatypus9870]

Just curious, what do you mean the difference between lab grown gems and natural? They’re the same thing…

[@S.Vallieres]

Thank you very much Larrin for this great study and video!

[@revilolavinruf]

Yea boyy another KSN vid!

[@menelikekani3310]

Thank you! This filled in a lot of gaps for me with regards to heat treating.

[@FearNoSteel]

Woot

[@lindboknifeandtool]

Voots stahl, ferry ferry charp - roman

[@francobuzzetti9424]

you're such a knife steel nerd omg!! i love it

[@charlesvincent4127]

I think that Mr. Pendry created the closest approximation of wootz as he used ore from the mine in Syria where they were sourcing the metals for the blades historically. Moreover, they may have had special forging techniques that were specialized for that wootz steel just like there are different forging techniques for modern steels.

[@FindanDandy]

precisely hence 'Damask' as adjective same for damascus silk- but no one gets all nationalistic over the well known, scholastically accepted, Damascus silk.

[@nexusimmortal3669]

So, if we can figure out what blacksmith tools were used in that era, we could potentially find within many years

[@joellelinden7079]

I remember reading years ago an article about a damascus viking wootz sword found in the sea near scotland. Microscopic image showed a black chrismastree like structure in rows. Unfortunately i don't remember which publication it was in

[@paulwormwood6414]

Wow. Very satisfying and informative. Liked and subscribed.

[@Keith_the_knife_freak]

Interesting discussion.. thanks for sharing

[@case4444]

If you haven't yet, a good book to look into is Medieval Islamic Swords and Swordmaking: Kindi's Treatise 'On swords and their kind' by Robert G. Hoyland and Brian Gilmour. I read through it last year, and while the wording isn't the clearest in English, it seemed to me that the wootz swordsmiths had a pretty good understanding of optimizing hardness and toughness for the particular blade through changes in heat treatment.

[@IsitAKnife]

Yes, I think we should start from what we know. And one thing is for sure. Wootz steel was regarded as a very good steel. So if we don’t recreate wootz steel with good edge retention and resistance to bending, then there is something wrong in the way we are doing it. I am not trying to be mean or disrespectful to the hard work done for this video

[@nickdavis5420]

I think if we look at it compared to other ancient blades we would see it’s age’s better. Nothing can compare to modern steel unless you want a scalpel that lasts .

[@ExarchGaming]

@@IsitAKnife Or like many legends and Myths the properties are exaggurated for either nationalistic, religious, or even economic reasons. Both are just as likely to be true. The problem with these myths and legends about a material's property is the willingness of people to believe them on faith alone. Especially on the internet, the whole katana vs european longsword (and the samurai vs knight) debates are absolutely endemic of this issue.

[@IsitAKnife]

@@ExarchGaming I totally agree with you. That is why we need a scientific approach. So that is why I was suggesting a different hypothesis to test. If Wootz was superior to its peer steels. I am not sure what the hypothesis tested here was. Second: With the characteristics of the wootz tested here, I can already tell you that it would result a far inferior steel to its peers. And this is when I have some doubts about this work. Wootz was battle tested and used for centuries, it would have been unreasonable if it was that bad to use it on the battle field. The other point is that very few makers can make good wootz and even fewer have years of experience with it. With all the due respect, I would chose one of these makers. Still on this point, why was the blade grinder entirely to the edge? It wouldn’t be the way it was done.

[@stefthorman8548]

@@IsitAKnife " battle tested" against crudely made bog steel, not impressive at all if it performs better

[@RedBeardOps]

Gosh that Wootz is beautiful! Good info here

[@anatineduo4289]

Knerd! Awesome work.

[@MrRagequitnow]

As a science nerd, mechanic, welder, and fabricator, I was given a book from the 1930's, It blows my mind how much in your video is reflected in the book. I need to dig through my crap, and I'll repost the name of the book, I believe the author was a Syrian migrant to the UK, it's been a long time since I was interested in forging. Lately I'm much more financially better off, it might be time to start getting into a new hobby.

[@JDStone20]

Good video!! Awesome stuff!!! Really nice to see someone not always cranking out high carbide or super steel videos.

[@Ajaxykins]

Great information! I'd definitely love to see the 52100 woots!

[@coopercummings8370]

Wootz is not the older of the two steels, but it was the first one to be called Damascus. Pattern welding was commonly used prior to the development and widespread adoption of furnaces hot enough to fully melt steel in order to combine excessively high carbon steel and very low carbon steel in a way that yielded a final product that was usable, it fell out of use when full melt smelting processes that could reliably produce high quality steel were adopted, and wootz was made using one of those processes.

[@Rascal77s]

It's a fun and enlightening video. It's one of my favorites on your channel so far. Thanks.

[@CAepicreviews]

"I worked with Bladesmith Spencer Sandison" *Shows the most jacked man seen*

[@herbertgearing1702]

I really like my roselli uhc wootz carpenter's knife. It's supposed to be somewhere around 64-66hrc.

[@derigel9783]

Holy shit, this has teaching material quality!

[@wesb123]

Be cool to see one on the evolution of the Samurai swords from the beginning all the way up to the super iconic Katana

[@fredrichardson9761]

Awesome video! I think more than anything, "wootz" has an important historical significance - it must have been quite a lot better than other options of the time. But also, being able to recreate wootz is awesome - just like being able to recreate any other thing that was lost and not well understood today. Oh, and baybe some would define wootz by it's similarity to the ancient material? That might have been a pretty broad category...

[@Udeus5]

I would love to see a paper/video on how to improve wootz. Peter Schwartz-Burt is another maker to consider for his wootz

[@HeavyForge]

Agreed! Peter is an excellent Wootz smith, one of the best.

[@mikafoxx2717]

Like a custom alloy meant to have purposeful banding.. hmmmm, interesting point.

[@nikf.4531]

Like always, very interesting video! Thanks! I would like to see 52100-wootz steel. And some kind of modern wootz-pattern springsteel, if its even possble 😀

[@daveG31]

The minute I saw the thumb nail, I was like, hey that looks like Spencer's work.

[@DatGuie]

Great video, very insightful.

[@GibsonCutlery]

Fascinating, as usual!

[@arturferreira9654]

Brother, this is really amazing! Now onde thing that caught my attention is when you said that high carbon content leads to low hardenability. Literature refers to the opposite. Carbon stabilizes austenite phase (as well as Manganese and other metallic elements that usually present FCC crystal structure), so that when ferritic phase is more thermodynamiclly stable, the temperatures are already too low for diffusion of iron atoms, and the displacive trasnformation that leads to martensite takes place. But I don't know, some times practice and theory don't agree, right?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

High carbon steels are lower in hardenability because the formation of cementite becomes very favorable

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

I'd be curious to see what would result from someone pattern-welding a blade out of differing grades of crucible wootz. Double Damascus? Damascus²?

[@Foxholeatheist]

Love your Conte t, and bought your first book for a blacksmithing nerd friend of mine. 😁 Per the charts on your site, have you considered having someone code up a way for users to pick an arbitrary number of specific steels to chart? Seems like it would be easy to code, and would make it much simpler to compare steels.

[@calvertschmued2920]

Examining the ancient steel at such an in depth level was fascinating. Unrelated tangent, but have they ever asked you to be a judge on forged in fire ? Lol and if so would you do it if scheduling issues were not a factor?

[@cae2487]

Looking at some of the charts I'd best very interested in seeing a show down between two san mai blades. One blade would have a core of 1084 with 15n20 jackets and the second blade would be a 15n20 core with 1084 jackets. It'd be interesting to see which one ended up tougher, harder, and had better edge retention or if they'd up pretty close to identical. I think the 15n20 jacket with 1084 would perform between than it's counterpart.

[@poncho151]

Wootsie daisy, I’ve never been and am still not sold on woots. Great content as always!

[@1014p]

It’s seems to me it was just a moment in time legend. I would think given the process of ingot blade making. Somebody at some point would have found source of their metals and figured out similar.

[@llamawizard]

I have a question about your tables on the website. When you give a steel a rating, 1-10, for toughness and edge retention, is that score relative to only those steels in the same category, I.e. stainless? For example 1095 has a toughness rating of 4.5, while 14C28N/AEB-L has a toughness rating of 9. Are 14C28N/AEB-L really that much tougher than 1095?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

The ratings are not relative to others in the category. AEB-L is that much better than 1095.

[@llamawizard]

@@KnifeSteelNerds woohoo. Thanks.

[@llamawizard]

@@KnifeSteelNerds Another question…Does the toughness category include impact resistance, say from chopping? Or perhaps even the impacts associated with swords?

[@TimJohnson-x1o]

@@llamawizard that's exactly what toughness means in this context, yes.

[@lindboknifeandtool]

@@llamawizardresistance to breaking under plastic deformation. To me, a steel shouldn’t deform in the first place 😂 Edge stability seems to be what most people refer to when they say toughness. Idk I’m a peon

[@mikoajpietrych6168]

I guess the most practical definition of Wootz steel would be one that only refers to the historical steel. It's a closed and I'd assume verfiable group of objects. And everything else would rather wootz steel reconstruction, or wootz-like steel. Also I just rendomly stumbled onto this channel and I have to be honest I understand maybe half of what you were saying, but still found it interesting. Not promising I will stick around, but it was cool to learn this channel exist.

[@bebotime2941]

Really interesting video! Have you considered using DSC on the samples you processed to develop a TTT diagram for the wootz pattern? I'd be very interested in seeing something like that.

[@PCJustice70]

I just like the aesthetics of wootz Damascus, it’s a to me very different look. Also, I do wonder how far you could push the quality up of self banding steel with modern techniques. Of course that would not be ancient wootz, but it be very interesting, also what would happen if you pattern welded with wootz inclusions just as a visual technique? Anyway, thanks for the nice video.

[@murunbuchstanzangur]

I wonder if the banding, properly aligned, would make a more "toothy" edge. Some carbon steel mora knives have a microstructure that makes the edge like a microscopic saw blade, making them cut more aggressively.

[@OUTDOORS55]

"We can make better steel today". I can hear them coming out of the wood work 🐜 🪰🪳🪳🦟

[@nicodabastard]

We can make better everything today bud.

[@fuckoff5893]

@@nicodabastard He’s not saying we can’t bud.

[@youretheChrist]

But what if we make something better?

[@q-tip9962]

​@@youretheChrist The significance of Wootz steel has never been about it being better than modern day metals, but rather all the physical properties of the metal that we cant fully replicate today even with our advanced technology and resource access.

[@stefthorman8548]

@@q-tip9962 "physical properties" lmao, what physical properties? if you're talking about legends of it performing supernatural feats, then how about testing the old wootz blades?

[@Critter145]

2:01 that’s a work of art🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@alanhubbard4799]

I like to see the 52100 wootz or try optimize the properties of the crucible banding method with todays available materials.

[@NeonAnimeDreams]

This was really interesting, I always wondered how the legendary Damascus lived up to the hype with all those stories out there about it cutting through other swords and such. I guess they are just that though, over embellished stories. With toughness test low it'd certainly suffer from a major edge crack if not a complete blade fracture if you tried to cut another sword.

[@shootermcgavin991]

I was just thinking about this a couple days ago. Weird. Thanks!

[@2004jpepper]

where can i purchase the knife shown in the video ??? it looks fantastic also this is some great scientific work

[@grovePS3]

What a great video. There's so much contradictory misinformation regarding wootz/dimascus and I've ran down this rabbit hole several times trying to learn about it. Usually it starts with someone saying damascus was this lost ancient superior material, then another source will say no, damascus is a cheap imitation/misnomer, Wootz was the real superior material, it's from India, and it's so miraculous that we can't make it today. Then you'll read about the carbon nanotubes and think there's actually something to the myth. Honestly, it was kind of exhausting trying to find some solid information in one place until I saw this video.

[@collinsmith9941]

After listening to the precision in explaining how, what and why on a few videos I’d just really enjoy someone trying to argue with you on this topic. Hahaha Great stuff.

[@hamza9829]

You can have a sliding scale of definition for what is wootz, the ancient method and type being exactly wootz but all changes made to that process with whatever justification as a professional can also be considered wootz. People weren't strict with definitions in the past and it was probably just called that because of an area or something in the process. Saying that i'd love to see your rendition of wootz steel with modern techniques and understandings.

[@gareygerosky8030]

Very interesting.thank you

[@andypughtube]

Is the process where the larger carbides grow at the expense of smaller ones the same as Ostwald Ripening?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

That is the process of Ostwald ripening, yes. However to begin with the carbides that grow don’t need to be larger just more stable from the alloy.

[@WajeehLion]

Hello, thank you for the video! Damascus steel is important to my Middle Eastern/North African heritage. The legendary "Damascus steel" that we usually talk about is actually wootz steel, made differently than modern Damascus. I saw that you had a video about wootz steel, how does it fit in this video?

[@ClenioBuilder]

Bastante informativo 🤜🤛

[@clydecox2108]

Yes, Spencer is a bad ass.

[@niklashenritzi2084]

love you research work and all hail magnacut king of steels

[@kendallthurston1443]

the old method used some type of green plant matter along with special ore that only comes from only two places in Middle East

[@NathanNostaw]

Thanks for such an depth breakdown of Wootz. Is the naming as simple as Industrial Wootz or Commercial Wootz and Trad Wootz. (I would expect any small batch Wootz regardless of back yard or small fpundry would be within the range of a more traditional method). Id also like to see less use of the term Damascus. These days It has zero meaning and is no different than the old trend of Turbo being added to any object or appliance that needs to sound cooler than the previous one.

[@keithmcfarland8302]

I would imagine that ancient wootz varied more than we think.

[@Vitor_A.]

Please, make a video explaining about the s5 shock steel

[@janzizka9963]

Mr. Alfred Pendray would be proud.

[@KhemBMD]

Have you tested tamahagane? I’m curious how similar it would be to wootz

[@_BLANK_BLANK]

On the conversation of what is wootz. Maybe I'm not a purist but to me. 52100 is basically modern production wootz. Because of the banding it can have. M2 is high speed steel wootz A2 is air hardening die steel wootz I haven't messed with ingot stainless that has banding like that but I'm sure there a good stainless wootz candidate out there.

[@jacobcarter6028]

As the TCC chart gets more crowded I wonder if a CATRA medium that’s less abrasive would be better so you can get larger variations between steels.

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

I think it does a reasonable job differentiating. It is probably more precise than even our controlled sharpening methods. So a more sensitive test wouldn’t necessarily provide better data.

[@lindboknifeandtool]

I think we might just be making steels with very similar wear resistances generally. Wear through soft abrasion is for me at least, the least common form of dulling so the test is only one aspect.

[@jonnylawless6797]

I’m gonna stick to my D2 knives but I have a Damascus steel knife. I really just got it cause I liked the pattern 😂 I’d definitely buy more if that dude comes back to our annual tractor show

[@Nervii_Champion]

Wootz steel has to have a certain percentage of Vanadium and other metals in it, because what Saladin had mined was around the area of Damascus, which had trace amounts of Vanadium in the iron ore.

[@royalecrafts6252]

how thin would you go for a water quench?

[@brysonalden5414]

Thank you for this analysis. I fear it may provoke more foolish controversy about what should really be called "Damascus" and perhaps open the door for well-meaning advocacy regarding what should properly be called Wootz. In any event, interesting steels, and all useful.

[@SkunkworksProps]

I produced a seax in 1080 with some great looking carbide banding on it after repeated etchings to show up the hamon. Never tried to repeat it, maybe I should. Even at the time I thought "hey, this looks like wootz".

[@Robpearceknives]

Would cryo treatment help with pearlite conversion in woots or does cryo only help with higher chromium steels?

[@Curtis86]

I don't think so with it having such low hardenability. It has to be cooled so rapidly that the cryo wouldn't affect it.

[@elijahaitaok8624]

wootz and damascus steel both seem like they were made from scraps of traditionally folded iron just chucked into a crucible, "Can't do anything with this nugget, lets try and put it in a clay jar with some dry leaves, sand, and an animal tooth to give it some power." and created early steel

[@glennchartrand5411]

It's like they tossed wrought iron and cast iron in a crucible and .....

[@maseratidyce3587]

From a historical perspective, until it became somewhat demystified in the Renaissance era, iron production was steeped in religious ritual. There were fire gods, war gods, and gods of smithing that were invoked, and there was probably no less of an amount of precision in the rituals that we would now call steel composition and heat treat regime. This is still practiced today in traditional Japanese tamagagane bloomeries. My point is, we don’t give nearly enough credit to ancient people for how sophisticated they were despite not having a proscribed scientific method as we know it today. Even prior to the proliferation of iron tools, bronze making required long distance trade and a lot of precision to arrive at the finished products we see today. People weren’t dumber back then, there were still geniuses like Larrin and myself, just standing on the shoulders of somewhat smaller giants, and with less advanced tools to work with and less effective ways to share information.

[@elijahaitaok8624]

@@maseratidyce3587 oh I wasn't dissing the ancients, it's something I'd do too just to keep working my craft

[@NeonAnimeDreams]

Hey Larin, do you know approximately how much nitrogen it takes to get the same hardening effect as .1% carbon?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

knifesteelnerds.com/2022/08/27/why-nitrogen-knife-steels-are-soft/

[@NeonAnimeDreams]

@KnifeSteelNerds so about .5% nitrogen for every .3% of carbon is what I'm gathering from this. So for the equivalent of .1% carbon it'd be about .165% nitrogen. Does that sound correct?

[@NeonAnimeDreams]

@KnifeSteelNerds just finished watching the video in the article, seems to be a lot of nuance, whether its going into solution or not, whether it's used for forming nitrides or not ect. Heard you mention the nitrogen in magnacut wasn't for hardness but didn't explain what it was for. Did you add it to form chromium carbo nitrides or to improve the corrosion resistance?

[@greyvr4336]

This is way, way over my head, I was never a materials science nerd, so forgive me if you covered this and I missed it, but in my quick watch I don't think it was covered, and what I'm about to say might be pure internet legend. I read once that the 'Historic Damascus' had a specific property/impurity/allow to it wherein it would cause the cutting edge of the blade to have 'microscopic serrations' and this was the science behind the legend. Sort of like that Roman volcanic dust concrete that was so amazing. Perhaps it was just legend? Was this a part of your inquiry?

[@jasonlauritsen5587]

If you put sand in the mix, and bring the ore to boiling point, the impurities will bleed into the glass formed from the sand, and you can just hammer that off and have a much more pure steel.

[@carloswolfbr]

And about the carbon nanotubes in acient wootz steel?

[@LockBits-ts6eo]

Good stuff.

[@SH1974]

Very informative video, thank You very much! Need to watch it at least onece more to understand all that - and implate it into my current view to damascus steel. To me, there is no "this is the real" - those 2 methods of making "damascus Steel" are just two different ways to combine the elements for having the best of them into the final piece of steel that makes the cutting tool. I've got a first Edition of Manfred Sachse's Book "Damascus Steel". For me that boook is kind of a "holy grail" in books about damascus steel. He goes very much into patterns and how to create them (also letters in torn damascus eg for firearm barrels; some swords have been found, still unknown how they've been forged to get the pattern they have) and there is a relatively short chapter in that book called "Wootz - The REAL Damascus?" I'm fascinated of the art of makig the alloy in a crucible and then forge from a solid block. Especially when I see the more and more inflative use of borax in so many videos on KZbin. Although some awesome blades are created that way, to me excessive use of Borax is not the "real high art" of making damascus steel. One of my favorite Knife-making channels on KZbin is borax-free; the guy of "FZ-making knives" also uses springs, ball bearings, razor- or scalpel blades,... as source for his knifes, but he makes them of Wootz Steel. Awesome knifes!

[@WalterW]

Woot! A discussion on wootz!

[@nathancole6678]

While it is probably not possible to do “real” tests without a time machine. I am curious if you have data or opinions about historic wootz vs mono vs pattern welded steel qualities.

[@imhigh0013]

Thank you for citing the distinct differences.

[@Eveseptir]

You would think by the way in which people online talk about the quality of the steel produced in feudal times that the blacksmiths had magic powers.

[@addytuney2028]

Thank you Larrin!

[@OG-ProfessorFarnsworth]

This was fantastic!! Thank you! I think toughness is the main property that gave wootz its mythical status. A sword that bends and springs back is far more valuable than a razor sharp edge. I think a modern wootz would make an amazing knife steel not necessarily for its superior performance but for its beauty. Needs to be consistently heat treatable. Definitely subscribing and can’t wait to see more! Oh and I think wootz should be defined as a traditionally manufactured or primitive crucible steel. Must include carbide structures but I don’t think we need to be more specific than that.

[@terryalderson2851]

Finally someone using proper terminology for pattern welded steel and Damascus.

[@nickhadfield3192]

In this case it makes sense to have a distinction. In the previous test on damascus steel, he used that term instead of tripping over 'Pattern welded steel' every ten seconds. Nobody cares about 'well ackshually it's not really damascus' arguments.

[@ExarchGaming]

@@nickhadfield3192 certain historians might just for accuracy sake. I agree that it's a silly level of nitpicking but some historians are extremely anal about terminology.

[@timbirch4999]

"It not WEEEEL Damaaascuss!!!!"

[@urblotasunkynewulf615]

Angel Swords in Texas have made their own version of wootz and call it Techno Wootz. Is it any good? I have no idea.

[@PiethagorasTearem]

What does the material have to do with the city damascus?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

The steel was connected with the city Damascus due to trade, etc

[@lvbuckeye]

Do the Ulfberht swords count as wootz, or are they just pattern welded "Damascus"?

[@KnifeSteelNerds]

They were pattern welded

[@dsslogistics1277]

Wootz is a specific forging process/ technology/ heat treatment.