Truth or Steel: Damascus and Wootz

The Real Truth of Damascus Steel and Wootz Steel Swords.

What a complicated question. First, let’s do a little freshening up on what exactly Damascus steel and Wootz steel is.
I right now claim to have no background in Metallurgy. But I think I will show you in this webpage that Damascus is only a name given to a steel sword that was produced in the City of Damascus Syria and that Damascus steel Is not a specific “type” of steel. And that Wootz steel is.

Again, Damascus is in Syria and Damascus steel swords were only given that name in reference to where it was forged. There is however a type of steel named Wootz steel, that the City of Damascus would import ingots of this steel from India. So that should be a good indicator that Wootz steel was used in Damascus to forge swords.
India must have been the first to have discovered Wootz
steel in my opinion.

Wootz steel is a crucible steel characterized by a pattern of bands, which are formed by sheets of micro carbides (carbon steel) within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix in higher carbon steel, or by ferrite and pearlite banding in lower carbon steels. It is the pioneering steel alloy matrix developed in Southern India in the 6th century BC and exported globally.

Syria got Their Wootz steel ingots from India

Crash course in   Steel production,
When iron is smelted from its ore, it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become steel, it must be reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. In the past, steel facilities would cast the raw steel product into ingots which would be stored until use in further refinement processes that resulted in the finished product. In modern facilities, the initial product is close to the final composition and is continuously cast into long slabs, cut and shaped into bars and extrusions and heat treated to produce a final product. Today only a small fraction is cast into ingots. Approximately 96% of steel is continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as ingots.

Damascus-Wootz  Steel knife.

This is the start of the Real Truth of Damascus Steel Swords.

———– First we start with the opinion of  Sword Buyers Guide. and what THEY think of damascus steel.

Next, In the video below, no information is given as to “what type” of steel the Swordmaker is using. But the technique used was pattern welding.

Forging a Pattern welded sword blade.

Pattern welded steel blades is a technique of forming a blade by using several metal pieces with or without the same composition and then forge-welding them together. Another way pattern welded steel blades are produced is by “twisting” the steel as seen in this video below.

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The “Above’ Pattern-welded steel blade was created with a Fuller Groove ( in This case This sword was created with two fuller grooves  ) better Yet ?   The fuller groove is a rounded or beveled groove along the flat side of a blade or a sword, knife, or bayonet. A fuller groove is often used to widen a blade. When combined with proper tapers heat treatment and blade tempering, a fullered blade can be 18% to 37% lighter stronger and More ‘flexible’ than a non-fullered blade of strength or blade integrity. This fuller groove effect lessens as the blade is reduced in length.

How long should a sword be to use a fuller groove.

Fullers are historically known as blood grooves or blood gutters, although channeling blood is not their purpose.

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A Folded steel blade is typically made from high carbon steel. The difference is that a folded steel blade is just like it says; the steel is folded over and over again until the smith believes that it is adequate.
High carbon steel is very high quality steel; however folded steel is the strongest. Actually it’s not that the folded steel is a different type of steel, but how the blade is forged.

Reference: Folded Steel? | Physics Forums – The Fusion of Science and Community

 

Here is a 27 minute Youtube video of an authentic process of forging a Tamahagane samurai sword.

     Tamahagane. a high quality steel made in the Japanese tradition. The word Tama means “round and precious” like a gem. The word hagane means “steel” ) It is a rather long video but well worth the view.

Folding steel was a technique used by Japanese swordsmiths to try to get the best steel they could from very poor ore sources. Folded steel blades are more likely than modern monosteels to have large, unseen inclusions of impurities that may in fact critically weaken a blade. By folding the steel billet many, many times, they achieved a more even distribution of carbon and worked most of the impurities out of the steel.

That is not so with Tamahagane , a high quality steel. Tamahagane steel is a special type of rare steel used by traditional Japanese swordsmiths. Tamahagane is made of an iron sand (satetsu), which is found in Shimane, Japan. There are 2 main types of iron sands: akame and masa. Akame is of lower quality and Masa is of better quality. The person who decides the amount of the mixing parts is called the ‘Murage’. Depending on the desired sword quality the Murage mixes the sands.

The process of making just the Tamahagane continues for 3 days. Within an hour of smelting the iron sand sinks to the bottom called the Bed of Fire in which it will be assessed by color on whether or not it has become Tamahagane. The iron sand is added every 10 minutes and the mixture is frequently turned. When the Tamahagane is finished the clay tub is broken and the steel is removed. The best steel is at the edges of the metal, because this is where the oxidation process is stronger. The quality of the Tamahagane sword is determined by its color: Bright silver pieces are Very good for making blades.

Pattern-welding was a technique used to try to get the best steel from very poor ore sources. Pattern-welding is the art of hammering together, and then twisting and re-hammering layers of iron (often of varying carbon content). The Celts as far back as the 5th century BC may have made swords by pattern-welding and this technique was used extensively until at least the end of the 10th century. After this, better, more consistent iron ore was obtainable and furnace technology improved making this labor intensive technique unnecessary. Also like folded steel blades, pattern welded blades are more likely than modern mono-steels to have large unseen inclusions of impurities that may in fact critically weaken a blade.

Steel Categories

According to the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI),

Steel can be categorized into four basic groups based on the chemical compositions:

Carbon Steel
Alloy Steel
Stainless Steel
Tool Steel

You have noticed that in all these videos and more, the sword makers have used both the Folded method and the Pattern welded method to produce what they called Damascus steel swords. So once again it is in my opinion that Damascus Steel is just a “Term” and Not an actual type of steel. And that Wootz steel is a combination of cast iron and other compositions.

Here’s a More technical breakdown of Different Steel Types and Properties.

According to the World Steel Association,

There are over Three Thousand Five hundred !
different grades of steel.

Then a statement by: Terence Bell in this article he wrote entitled: Different Steel Types and Properties.

Terence Bell
is the President and Founder of Strategic Metal Investments Ltd., a diversified metal trading, marketing and investment company with operations in North America and China. He is also the Editor of Strategic Metal Report, a blog which provides market followers with up-to-date, independent and unique analysis of minor metal markets.