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!”
13
u/Wolfman2032 4d ago
The fun part is that we don't actually know!
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.