What is TRUE Damascus! [What You Need to Know]

[@Thesaryhoyek]

As a person from Damascus, hats off for getting the date of Timur Leng's sacking of the city right. He beheaded so many people he practically depopulated the city, then he built massive towers with the severed heads, at the site of one of these towers there is a neighbourhood, outside the historic door of Tomas, still called Borj al rous which literally translate to the tower of heads.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I do my best to provide accurate information in each video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and I'm glad to see you on the channel again!

[@anon2034]

Are there any actual skulls there?

[@stevealford230]

OMG... FINALLY a video about Damascus where I DON'T have to write a novel in the comments to correct errors! BRAVO and THANK YOU, sir. Well done!

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Thank-you! I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@danzigrulze5211]

Wootz is true Damascus. The pattern wielded garbage being sold and up-priced by blade smiths does not have the same structure and is in fact inferior steel compared to the nano structures found in true Wootz Damascus steel. The only other steel manufacture I can think of that would even come close would be Damasteel, but that is using modern powder metallurgy steels made in a pattern wielded form.

[@vonWeizhacker69]

This is the Truth and it makes me mildly furious that everybody in the knife worId kinda ignores this.

[@stevesyncox9893]

Facts.

[@fishdude666ify]

True. But unless you know how to smelt it it's more or less out of reach to the average smith. Now, nobody can say that a traditional katana is garbage, but it's not "pattern" welded per se, just forge-welded and folded.

[@bastadimasta]

Pattern welded steel is inferior and ugly.

[@youknowme1475]

i know this sound probably a bit stupid to other knife fanatics but can you check out the evolution of swiss army knives?

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Not stupid at all. Its been on the idea list, but I'll give it a bump in priority.

[@SomeOneWandering]

This makes for good research material. Thanks for the video.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@christophwilhelm6431]

You have reached a new level of production.. super informative👍

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and thank-you for your support!

[@Alex-e-Azam]

Very well explained, with quality information and no flaling around other info to make the video longer. Many blessings!

[@jdsmith02115]

As a professional Bladesmith I can say that he presents factual information. However, for the life of me, I don't get why people want to argue over this. Both types of steel were commodities that were handled through Damascus Syria. They were in fact concurrent events.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Mainly because people need something to argue over for their own entertainment. Another interesting piece of information is that pattern welded steel tends to be stiffer, whereas wootz is liable to be springier. As you know, each have their own place. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and hope to see you around the channel again!

[@sunnyday3148]

Neh...that's nice honey. I'll stick with Magnacut kiheheeee 😘

[@greggtrubee9565]

Very informative. I watched your Fairbarin -Sykes vid first. Now this one. Nice to see a straight forward and fact filled channel. Thanks!

[@HAYAOLEONE]

Another excellent video. 👍

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@HAYAOLEONE]

@@TheKnifeLifeChannel 👍

[@aadilnazir2870]

Love your content sir 👍🏼

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Thank-you very much!

[@gator83261]

Great video.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@EdwardTeach-kv7hc]

Wow, one of the best videos I've ever seen, across the board, grade A content, sir!

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Thank-you very much! I hope to see you around the channel again!

[@flippertygippert]

My question is which version is better? And what in modern metallurgy has surpassed it, if anything? And if not, why is it not very common today (at least so far as I understand)?

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

In general pattern welded steel tends to be stiffer, and wootz tends to be tougher. Unfortunately I don't have a wootz blade to play with myself and I don't have exact numbers to give you in terms of its mechanical properties. There was a dedicated effort led by Pendray and Verhoven to figure out how to make wootz in mass. There is a lot of potential for it in things such as leaf springs if you could mass produce it. As of yet it can be made in a low tech dirt floor foundry and smithy in small batches, but there hasn't been any success in industrial scaling up to the best of my knowledge. In comparison to modern steels, the problems pattern welded steel worked around have been largely dealt with via improved heat treating and superior "space age" steels. Wootz is likely still more relevant, but would be hard pressed to compete.

[@adamadkins9210]

​@@TheKnifeLifeChannelBravo to you for mentioning Pendray and Verhoven! There is a very informative video on. . . KZbin, in fact, about recreating crucible Wootz.

[@b80-s9i]

This was freekin great! Love the history...aaaaand might I say, PRODUCTION VALUE! 💪😎👍

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Keep and eye out for the next video: I'm working on major improvements to the lighting. I'm always trying to make the next video better than the last!

[@jameswhitaker1324]

Wait, how did the carbon nano tubes get in there? That’s the most interesting part here. Also, what forging process lead to the high carbon wires?

[@ghoulishgoober3122]

It's probably just, the way wootz steel works, when it's heated up it "crumples" and forms those wires at some point, or that's what happens after it gets hit with a hammer. This could also be from the acid treatment or whatever they do with Damascus.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

The mechanism of formation of the carbon nanotubes and the cementite nanowires is still not fully recognized. There are a couple of theories being floated at the moment, but no one actually knows. I will refer you to the research papers for those. I can tell you that the nanowires align down the length of the blade during forging. The cementite wires are broken into smaller pieces during the forging process at high temp and orient lengthwise down the blade as the steel is drawn out from the ingot into the blade.

[@stevealford230]

The short answer is the Vanadium content of the ore from two particular mines in India and Syria, along with just the right processes in making the crucible steel with the right amounts of carbon, and then working the steel at the right ranges that incidentally caused the carbon nanotubes to form nucleation sites around the edges of the lattice when the steel was quenched.

[@stevealford230]

@@TheKnifeLifeChannel Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was the best concise answer I couls conceive, based on what I learned from Al Pendray's work... but there may be newer discoveries that you've learned in the couple of years since I stopped smelting. The raw materials costs got too high for me once the pandemic killed the supply chain, lol. Great video, sir.

[@desbravatube]

Já cheguei dando like

[@kingjames4886]

pattern welded steel is the sparking wine of damascus.

[@MrDDiRusso]

What type of steel are Japanese katanas made from?

[@fizz576]

Historically katanas where made from a steel the Japanese called Tamahagane thought like other historical steels what is could be classified as Tamahagane is a much wider range than modern classifications of steels.

[@danzigrulze5211]

Tamahagane, which is bloomery steel. It is actually some of the worst steel that you can produce by today's standards, but is traditional in making katana. Most of the steel is used in making other tools and only select pieces are used in making the katana.

[@ghoulishgoober3122]

The Japanese harvested steel from the soil, surface mining, and meteorites. All were shit. From the soil and mining they got what we'd call pig iron, and meteorite metal is HEAVILY contaminated with nickels, silvers, and golds you can't just cut away from the iron and other desirable metals.

[@mikeford963]

@@ghoulishgoober3122 Tell me you know nothing about metallurgy, without telling me you know nothing about metallurgy.

[@__cypher__]

Knice!

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I see what you did there! Thanks for commenting and I hope to see you around the channel again!

[@PelenTan]

My thoughts on which is "true"? Wootz asking?

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Wootz up?

[@williamhannon6055]

Wootz is the best

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I'm trying to track down a wootz blade myself so I can show it on the channel!

[@richardmcginnis5344]

what they call damascus is really just pattern welded steel real damascus looks like steel that was rained on, i had a 400 year old jambiya that was real damascus and it looked like it got rained on but the drops were in the steel

[@timmykookoo]

I love the fanatical pro-wootz comments ranting and raving that pattern welded steel is shit and not real Damascus because Wootz is better. Its like they ignored the premise of the video and think the premise is about establishing which steel is best and then slapping the Damascus name on that one. Why are they such staunch Wootzers anyway? Are they Indian? I'm intrigued.

[@mynameismin3]

Wootz Damascus is the ONLY Damascus! Period! Pattern welded steel is not even Damascus steel at all. This is a fact, not an argument.

[@fabiogasperini4809]

Exactly.

[@jakegorman7121]

You talk as though we are superior and are still smithing but ancient blacksmiths were far superior in that they could make irons that would not rust and coppers that are extremely hard and would not suffer any corrosion such things we could only dream of doing.

[@jerrydonquixote5927]

A lot of people think Damascus are these laser-etched blades that are made of one layer of Steel and that's irritating. Thanks for this informative video!

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@gkewley42]

Pattern welding is not Damascus. Any village blacksmith could make pettern welded blades. Damascus is completely different and is grey with no pattern. The Americans got this wrong.

[@TheKnifeLifeChannel]

Wootz does actually display a pattern after acid etching similar pattern welded steel. It isn't as dramatic of an effect, but it is there. That pattern is a source of some of its nicknames such as "watered" steel.

[@gkewley42]

@@TheKnifeLifeChannel I agree. I was making the point that nearly all Damascus vids are actually pattern welding vids.