There was a type of steel called wootz that was produced in India that we no longer know the recipe for. That steel was used by smiths in Damascus to produce blades that had a fine wavy pattern on it (the recipe for which is also lost). Damascus blades made from wootz were considered the amongst the best on the planet, and had nearly mythical reputations in the ancient and medieval world (Beowulf, for example, wields one).
There have been MANY claims of people figuring out the trick to wootz/Damascus through reverse engineering and other means, but so far nobody has made legit Damascus steel in about 150 years.
Pattern welding is a modern technique that can create VISUALLY similar patterns in steel, and is the method used in the video.
I think that's my point. We don't really know what damascus steel is. So the modern definition of damascus steel should be a pattern welded steel inspired by the lost art of damascus steel.
It just bugs me that people get so caught up in the pedantry that we can't just enjoy having a conversation about it.
“We’ve lost the original meaning but have assigned new meaning to the word allowing the language to evolve naturally as it always has done over the course of human history despite people who can’t stand being wrong or seeing the world change kicking and screaming and gnashing their teeth about it!”
Damascus steel in the historical sense refers to a type of steel that was made in south India, using a process where a specific steel was smelted in canisters with organic matter added to add carbon. The way the steel crystallised in this process gave it a wavy, organic pattern and produced a material that performed very well for the technology available at the time. These billets called wootz were transported to Damascus where they were forged into blades.
Nowadays, Damascus is commonly known in knife making and collecting as anything pattern welded. We call the historical process wootz steel now. A lot of research has gone into it. I really recommend looking up a guy called Larian Thomas (knife steel nerds) who’s a metallurgist. He’s got some videos on the topic and has written some excellent books on knife making.
If I recall correctly, it's an ancient process of heating the steel and folding it, and then pounding it back flat, and then folding it again, over and over, dozens of even hundreds of times. It both strengthens the metal and gives it that neat wavy pattern. Again, that's just my vague memory though
mate it’s not that fucking deep alright nobody gives a shit anymore.
Are you gonna say your friends wedding was aweful because “erm actually the word comes from being full of awe, meaning it’s actually a good thing! ☝️🤓”
words change meaning, the history is there if you want it, but there’s just no fucking reason to jump on people’s ass for using a word that is 99.9% used to describe the thing they’re describing.
Pattern welding in modern parlance is Damascus. That’s how it’s known in the knife making industry and colloquially. Wootz steel is the name for the historical process and there are people who still recreate it exactly as it was historically using palm fronds and shells and whatnot.
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u/Wolfman2032 4d ago
I don't care how ubiquitous it is, it will never stop annoying me that people call pattern welding "damascus"!