The Secrets of Wootz Damascus Steel

Exploring the lost secrets of wootz Damascus steel, its historical origins, and modern reproduction efforts by experts.

Key Takeaways

Wootz steel is the original material behind authentic Damascus blades, known for unique patterns and superior toughness.
The production method was lost but has been successfully revived by Al Penry and his collaborators.
The Wadi mine ore has historical and metallurgical significance linked to Damascus steel production.
The bloomery and crucible processes, combined with precise forging and thermal cycling, are key to authentic Damascus steel.
Modern attempts to replicate wootz steel often fail to match the quality and microstructure achieved by Penry’s team.

What the video covers

Wootz is the ancient steel material from which genuine Damascus blades were made, prized for its intricate patterns and superior qualities.
The production secrets of wootz were lost about 150 years ago but have been rediscovered through modern metallurgical research.
In 2014, experts including bladesmith Al Penry tested iron ore from the historic Wadi mine in Jordan to produce authentic wootz steel.
Al Penry, alongside metallurgist Dr. John Verhoeven and Bill Ots, has been able to consistently reproduce wootz steel with authentic microstructure and surface patterns.
The Wadi mine near Damascus has a rich historical significance, supplying iron for Saladin’s armies during the Crusades.
Wootz steel was primarily imported from India and traded in Damascus markets before being forged into swords by Persian and regional swordsmiths.
The bloomery process using charcoal furnaces is essential for extracting iron from ore and producing wootz steel.
Modern experiments with Jordanian ore aimed to replicate historical steel-making techniques and validate the quality of the ore.
The forging process and thermal cycling are critical to developing the characteristic Damascus steel pattern and microstructure.
Despite many attempts, Al Penry’s method remains unmatched in producing museum-quality Damascus steel blades.

Chapters

What is wootz steel and why is it important?

Wootz steel is an ancient high-quality steel known for its distinctive patterns and superior toughness. It is the original material used to make authentic Damascus blades.

How was the secret of making wootz steel lost and rediscovered?

The production methods were lost about 150 years ago due to industrial changes and secrecy. Modern experts like Al Penry and Dr. John Verhoeven have revived the process through metallurgical research and experimentation.

What role did the Wadi mine in Jordan play in Damascus steel production?

The Wadi mine was a significant historical source of iron ore near Damascus, supplying iron for Saladin’s armies and possibly contributing to the production of authentic wootz steel used in elite swords.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

The intricate patterns and enigmatic beauty of wootz Damascus steel have been prized for centuries, but the secrets of how it was produced were lost around a hundred and fifty years ago. Wootz is the material, the metal from which genuine Damascus blades were made. It is ancient, and it is mysterious. In December 2014, a team of experts assembled at the Florida workshop of bladesmith Al Penry to begin work on some iron ore from a historical mine in Jordan. They wanted to find out if this ore would produce authentic wootz.

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Damascus blades were made it is ancient and it is mysterious in December 2014 a team of experts assembled at the Florida workshop of bladesmith owl Penry to begin work on some iron ore from an historical mine in Jordan they wanted to find out if this

Speaker A

Wootz was the first high-quality steel made by man, which is like a Mona Lisa. I mean, it's the main thing about Damascus steel. What people don't really know is the pattern, and that it was discovered so long ago and nobody knew how it happened. But now, after 150 years, the mystery of wootz has finally been solved. Beginning in the late 1980s, Al Penry, working alongside internationally renowned metallurgist Dr. John Verhoeven and Bill Ots, former vice president of Nucor Steel, began producing verifiably authentic wootz.

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discovered so long ago and nobody knew how it happened but now after 150 years the mystery of wootz has finally been solved beginning in the late 1980s al Penry working alongside internationally renowned metallurgist dr. John Verhoeven and build-outs former vice president of

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As far as I know, after all these years of people trying, Al Penry is the first person who's been able to consistently make blades from cakes that are similar to wootz steel, that have the same surface pattern and the same internal microstructure that we find for high-quality Damascus blades that are in museums. The results and methodology of this work were published in several scientific journals, including Scientific American. Several people have attempted to follow this formula but have so far failed to achieve Al's level of success.

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the same internal micro structure that we find for high quality Damascus blades that are in museums the results and methodology of this work were published in several scientific journals including Scientific American several people have attempted to follow this formula but

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We, of course, are very interested in other people's work on this, and to our knowledge, nobody has ever been able to produce the quality of Damascus steel that Al Penry can produce. And if you look at it under a microscope, you'll see a blatant difference between what other people say is Damascus steel and is not, and what we make. Although he had previously achieved considerable success, I was intrigued to work with a new ore. Every ore has a unique elemental composition and presents its own challenges.

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produce and if you look at it under a microscope you'll see a blatant difference between what other people say is Damascus steel and is not and what we make although he had previously achieved considerable success I was intrigued to

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This ore came from a mine in the north of Jordan, the Wadi mine near Al-Saloon, which is a mere 87 miles from Damascus. It is a mine that has an extraordinary historical pedigree. It was a principal source of iron for the armies of the renowned warrior Salah ad-Din, a man who possessed a sword of legendary sharpness. In the second half of the 12th century, during the Crusades, the papacy imposed an arms embargo on the Levant, one that included the importation of iron and iron products.

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from Damascus it is a mine that has an extraordinary historical pedigree it was a principal source of iron for the armies of the renowned warrior salah arden a man who possessed a sword of legendary sharpness in the second half of the 12th century

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This put a premium on domestic sources of iron ore. However, the majority of wootz, a superior type of steel for elite sword manufacture, came mostly from India. Bars of wootz were imported from India, probably traded in the markets of Damascus, and then forged into swords throughout the region. Persian swordsmiths had an especially high reputation, and their finished blades were also traded in Damascus. Damascus was undoubtedly an international trading center for patterned blades, but there may be a more specific connection between the term Damascus steel and the ores from the Wadi mine.

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Steel for elite sword manufacture came mostly from India bars of wootz were imported from India probably traded in the markets of Damascus and then forged into swords throughout the region Persian sword smiths had an especially high reputation and they're finished

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Certainly, protecting the Wadi mine became a priority for Salah ad-Din, known in the West as Saladin. In 1180, he sent his chief commander and nephew, Is al-Din Osama, from Beirut to Al-Loon in order to build the castle there. It was completed in 1185. Not only did this magnificent fortification command the area and protect the mine, but archaeologists have found the remains of furnaces and crucibles showing that it was also an iron manufacturing center.

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wadi mine became a priority for Saleh abdomen liu be known in the West as Saladin in 1180 for he sent his chief commander and nephew is alden osama from beirut to a loon in order to build the castle there it was completed in 1185

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A shipment of ore from the Wadi mine was delivered to Al Penry. He was keen to see what it would do. Now, I got my hands on some of the ore that actually was there, that Saladin worked at, mine and all, and that's kind of interesting to me on its own merits. Intent on producing their own wootz Damascus blades, two world-class Jordanian swordsmiths also traveled to Florida to join Al and the team for the experiments with this ore.

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to our pendra he was keen to see what it would do now I got my hands on some of the ore that actually was there that Saladin worked at mine and all and that that's kind of interesting to me on it

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When they first saw Al Penry's work, Ione Hopak and Abdul Rahman Jaffa were impressed. In fact, Abid had noticed something in particular. When I first came to Al Penry's workshop, I was surprised to see one of his blades which had the same pattern as the swords which were made by Asadullah Imperia. That was quite a compliment from a fellow expert. And for the next four days, many hours were spent in conversation. Wootz was a collaboration of light mines.

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Rahman Jaffa were impressed in fact Abid had noticed something in particular when I first came to Al Pender his workshop I was surprised to see one of his blades which have the same pattern of the swords which we are

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However, before the arrival of the Jordanian smiths, Al and his assistant bladesmith Jeremy Jennings had some preparation to do on the Jordanian ore. We're going to be lighting the charcoal diploma here to get it up to heat. Wootz begins where all iron and steel begin, as a lump of rock which is known as iron ore. In order to extract the iron from the rock, it has to be processed in a bloomery.

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our and his assistant bladesmith Jeremy Jennings had some preparation to do on the Jordanian or we're gonna be light in the charcoal diploma here to get it up to heat roots begins where all iron and steel begin as a lump of rock which is

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This is a charcoal-fueled furnace that smelts the ore, a chemical process quite different from melting. Al's bloomery is made from modern materials, and for convenience, he uses a fan instead of bellows. But inside, the size, composition, and temperature of the fire is identical to that in a traditional bloomery. Half iron ore is a combination of iron oxide and various impurities, and the main job of the bloomery is to reduce the oxide, that is, to remove the oxygen that makes it iron oxide, and to leave mostly iron.

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from modern materials and for convenience he uses a fan instead of bellows but inside the size composition and temperature of the fire is identical to that in a traditional blue Murray half iron ore is a combination of iron

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Before the ore is ready for the bloomery, it has to be prepared first. It is broken into small pieces and roasted, driving off moisture and impurities such as sulfur. It can then be pounded into small granules. They are rusty red because they are now almost pure iron oxide. This is the ore from the Wadi mine in Jordan, and it can now be added to the furnace.

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bloomery it has to be prepared first it is broken into small pieces and roasted driving off moisture and impurities such as sulfur can then be pounded into small granules they are rusty red because they are now almost pure iron oxide this is

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When the ore is added to the furnace, which is done in alternating layers with the charcoal, carbon monoxide from the burning charcoal strips the oxygen from the iron oxide. CO becomes CO2, and so the oxides in the ore are reduced, leaving what is known as a bloom of metallic iron. During the bloomery process, the iron also absorbs a small amount of carbon, turning it into a low-carbon steel.

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the iron oxide co becomes co2 and so the oxides in the ore are reduced leaving what is known as a bloom of metallic iron during the bloomery process the iron also absorbs a small amount of carbon turning it into a low carbon

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It takes several hours for the ore to reduce, and careful monitoring allows Al to control just how much carbon goes into the bloom. The furnace needs constant tending, checking to see whether levels are right, that everything is burning evenly, adding more charcoal or more ore as required. Poke it over there and get it burning. Even then, we'll dump more in there. Eventually, it is time to check on the yield.

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evenly adding more charcoal or more or as required poke it over there and get it burning even then we'll dump more in there eventually it is time to check on the yield the bloomery is open from below and the unburned paper is a sure sign

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The bloomery is open from below, and the unburned paper is a sure sign that the furnace has remained oxygen-free. Yeah, I mean, we've got some pretty good pieces in there amidst the charcoal ash and pieces from the ceramic lining of the furnace. This is the harvest of blooms. These are the prize, and what a prize they were. Blooms from the Jordanian ore were sent off for analysis at the laboratories of Nucor Steel.

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they were blooms from the jordanian or were sent off for analysis at the laboratories of Nucor steel analysis that yielded surprising results samples of the wadi or had previously been sent to london for analysis they showed a high iron content so the

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Analysis yielded surprising results. Samples of the Wadi ore had previously been sent to London for analysis. They showed a high iron content, so the team knew they were working with a good ore. But there was something else that Dr. John Verhoeven was looking for, something that was the secret for producing wootz Damascus. When I was working with Al in the late '80s, I told him that if he could consistently make blades that came out with the right pattern on the surface and inside, that I would figure out how they made them. I would figure out the secret of how it worked.

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him that if he could consistently make blades that came out with with the right pattern on a surface and inside that I would figure out how they made him I would figure out the secret of how it worked well we started working on ed in

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Well, we started working on it in '89, and we didn't figure it out until '96, and I was a little bit embarrassed about how long it took me. Dr. Verhoeven systematically analyzed and compared samples from both antique blades and the blades that I was making, searching for the clue to what's Damascus. And I thought for sure it was due to impurities. We analyzed the steels, and we found that they had manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, and a few other impurities in them.

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searching for the clue to what's Damascus and I thought for sure it was due to impurities we analyzed the steels and we found that they had manganese sulfur phosphorus and a few other impurities in them but we didn't analyze

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for impurities that were present below about point one percent because I didn't think they'd be important so we worked on it and worked on it and what we actually found the secret is an element that's present at point

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0:05 22.0 1% and that element is vanadium metal and it is present in some ores and not in other ores when it is present in that or that you're using to make the roots cake from which you make

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the blade you're going to have a very good chance of getting a pattern on the forged blade if it's not present you're not going to get it it was pretty fortuitous that some of the early Smith's we're using or that

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had been Adium and when they did they had a much better chance of getting a good pattern when they didn't they had usable steel but it couldn't get the beautiful pattern i'll ground a bloom from the jordanian or to give a clean

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surface for analysis by a spectrograph a machine that detects what elements are in a material he sent me a piece of that metal in which we found 0.008 - 0.001 vanadium which is right on the money for making wootz steel or the old

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Damascus steel this was an extraordinary discovery of great significance it means that Jordans Wadi mine situated less than a hundred miles from Damascus yields ores that have the capacity to make an indigenous woops a true Damascus roots and if Damascus myths could reduce

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their own they may have relied less on imported Indian roots than previously believed and so it is not surprising that the great Sala Arden and ashlynn castle built to defend the WOD a mine it may be that this was the source of the

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best sword ever produced an important difference between wootz and other pre-modern steels is that during its manufacture it is taken to a fully liquid state this is done in a crucible a ceramic container that can withstand incredibly high temperatures

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and in a furnace that is able to achieve those high temperatures this produces a small cake of exceptionally clean steel the melting process having caused all the impurities to float to the top the Jordanian Smith's were especially interested in this crucible phase

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unfortunately Ione had gone down with the flu and so for the next few days Abid was on his own the crucible requires several ingredients the main charge is of crushed iron from the Blumarine that is obvious enough but

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what comes next seems at first to be rather surprising ancient recipes call for the addition of fresh green leaves will get the hydrogen from the moisture in the leaf if you have any kind of a moisture content in there that you'll

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get the hydrogen from it will accelerate the carbon diffusion into the that pure iron and that will allow the iron to melt at a lower temperature and it takes time for that to happen the hotter it is and the hydrogen air SIL accelerates it

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so it can lower the melt point by a couple of hundred degrees Celsius another important constituent is crushed glass this melts floats to the top and creates an extra seal and help protect the charge so we don't oxidize it during

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them the heats and all it's important to understand the glass is gonna be one of the very first things that melts so it's basically I'm going to run through the or until the temp until the or temperature comes up and it begins to

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melt and then the ore is heavier than the glass so it actually melts down through the glass and then pushes the glass back to the very top of the crucible and that's what forms your cap on top of your metal ya finally able to

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help consume the oxygen then top I use a bit of charcoal it will consume the amount of oxygen will burn away some of it and then the rest of it will be left after the end of the melt floating on

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top of the glass you mean that piece of charcoal works as oxygen detector basically that's what it is it's like the old saying it's the canary in the mine they used to put a canary in the mine to detect the the damaging gases

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you know carbon monoxide build up in the mind if the canary was dead and there's something wrong same thing with this if the if the piece of charcoal is gone we know oxygen got in the crucible well the

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next thing we do is seal the lid on so I'll let Jeremy take care of that then I can blame him if it doesn't work very well everything depends on no oxygen getting into the crucible during the melt and so

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despite the extra security of the glass cap the seal on the lid is vitally important to withstand the high temperatures I'll uses a clay mixed with graphite I am so interested in knowing how can you measure of the temperature

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inside and how you guess was the right temperature was the right time to control the gas flowing early on I did it by eye you just had to look in there and it's very bright and hard to do it

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had to put on dark glasses and then but when dr. Verhoeven started working with me we had to have it a positive deal so he knew exactly what temperature worked at that point we developed a technique where the the furnaces raised off of the

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ground and we bring a thermocouple up through the pedestal block and there long tube protection to you with a platinum rhodium thermocouple and that comes up and this touches the bottom of the crucible and that way we know

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exactly what's temperature the outside of the crucible is roots is by definition a type of crucible steel and this is the stage where the potential of the ore begins to be realized it is also a stage in which there is as much art as

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science judgment is required in determining exact temperatures and timings being able to record every stage scientifically helps the team determine what to do next time the idea is they get it up above a certain temperature let it coast up a little bit hold it for

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a certain length of time and then cool it down that it's simply because that's what we found works the best the technology of being able to produce crucible steel was limited to India and parts of the Middle East throughout

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Europe sword blades were made exclusively from bloomery iron but bloomery iron had a significant drawback it was never melted and consequently it was full of slag inclusions all kinds of junk that came from the ore there was an

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iron stuff called gang bars from bloomery iron had to be worked under the hammer folded and refolded in order to drive out as many impurities as possible there is no doubt that high quality blades were made but compared to a clean

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crucible steel they were imperfect we know from looking at the steel it is extremely clean there are no nonmetallic inclusions in it it's very what we call clean steel from that standpoint from being mostly met all metal and we also

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know that it performs very well as a matter of fact deal rivals modern day clean Steel's in this purity which is really kind of amazing the sword should be high quality the sword if he breaks in your hand it

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means that the blacksmith is not good and the sword has been made in vain for nothing the sword must must be strong enough elastic and hard edged well one of the reasons you want to have a clean steel is because if you have inclusions

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in the steel it will cause the steel to not be as tough what happens is small cracks form around those inclusions and they propagates through and it breaks apart and so the clean steel is really desirable it wasn't until 1740 with Benjamin

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Huntsman's development of a crucible process in England the crucible steels were available in the West on an industrial scale as a consequence demand for traditional artisan crucible steels diminished and within two generations the secret of wootz began to fade the

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last good blades were made around 1850 1842 1850 and after that the technique was lost there were secrets in the past they make good wood steel because they knew these secrets now we're searching for these secrets unless we find these

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secrets the wood still won't be but we are very close to to gain that actually [Music] okay will you run for just about three hours since we started and we've got to the temperature we wanted to hold it at

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which is about 14 88 for this particular experiment a little higher we've been running and we held it for about a half an hour at that temperature the furnace is left to cool down overnight even so the crucible remains too hot to handle

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the making of wood steel is definitely not a slam-dunk we can make the whoops and we're fine-tuning the process to get the success rate as high as we can get it every ore is different and at each stage there is the possibility of making

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minor adjustments it is a process of trial and error there are several stages in the making of wootz each takes time and so with every step there is a lot of stake opening the crucible is an especially exciting moment hopefully it

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didn't crack under the heat hopefully the clay seal held did the glass cap do its job how good will the steel be the first signs are very positive and extremely encouraging it is certainly a quality piece of crucible

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steel but it is not yet roots Damascus it is the raw material and will only be what's Damascus when it reveals the right pattern you can make a steak Russa both steel though will have pretty much the same composition with no pattern now

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the difference between those two steels is that the wood steel has very fine carbides lined up in a raised and those the the advantage that that might provide would be superior wear resistance people are always looking for the ideal cutting instrument and there's

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a compromise that has to be made if the instrument the knife is extremely hard it's going to be somewhat brittle but it'll cut well as long as you're careful with it in the case of Lutz there's a good

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compromise made there's little iron carbides on the cutting edge which are very durable and they're held in place by material that is more ductile and therefore it's a more durable edge and the knife itself is a more durable in

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terms of mechanical strength that can bend and without breaking and it's just a better overall knife the wood steel was superior and you could make better swords from it because it had superior toughness it'll last longer hold its edge longer then the other

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plates well roots is so much more than just a beautiful pattern the metal has important physical properties it took an exceptionally keen edge and it had flexibility and durability in order to coax a quality wootz steel from the

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crucible cake the next step is what I'll describes as a rim treatment I guess just bring it on over here we put it in the box and then we run it we gently run this about the crucible steel is placed

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in a tray of iron oxide this wildy carburized exterior the intention is to create a low-carbon iron shell or rim around the steel core it is a necessary step in order to prevent the cake from cracking when forged

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unfortunate of the high-carbon cake with impurities of phosphorus which is normal in the natural ores a lot of them then you find that it will create a hot shortness which means that it will tear apart crack while you're deforming it

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and you will have just a lot of little pieces all apart instead of having a solid bar and that that you can finish into a product when you forge it you have your deformation travels through the material and if it is encased in

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this low carbon rim it doesn't stay torn apart it welds itself back together under the hammer normos so you don't end up with cracks and voids if you do not as a term goes see the light of day no there's an

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oxygen it gets into cracks they won't bond themselves back together and with the sealed up you can it will reform or solid steel even if it cracks on during the forge a beautiful Damascus sword is something to behold

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the reason that I think people have expressed so much interested in is because it has this history of appearing in Asia the Western people ran into it they didn't know how it was made it was superior to their steels and they had a

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beautiful pattern on it and so it has this mysticism about it which persists to this day the pattern indicates the quality of wood so the pattern is something essential for you to distinguish the the piece whether it's good or not I like to think that the

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ancient people making the beautiful wootz and the people who purchased the weapons made from that used it somewhat as a proof mark if the boots pattern was very pretty they knew that they had a very good weapon a woot is the starting

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steel from which Damascus steel blades are made a Damascus steel blade is almost always referring to a blade that has a surface pattern on it that is very attractive there's another type of steel called Damascus steel and a better name

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for that type of steel it isn't what I would call a wootz Damascus steel or a genuine Damascus steel it's what has been called pattern-welded Damascus steel and as beautiful patterns on it but it's made by an entirely different

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process in Patton welding several bars of bloomery on a Forge welded together these have never been fully melted and each bar varies in both carbon content and impurities the Smith exploit the different properties twisting bars together so that hard metals compensate for the soft

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and the softer ones for the hard in doing so he can also create a pattern one that a skilled Smith can in fact predetermine pattern-welded blades are beautiful but they are not routes Damascus and the wood steel is higher

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quality because it's one piece and more elastic woods was considered such a premium material in such a valuable material and the market reflected that people would would pay more for it naturally some people decide to make fake wootz it takes a trained eye to

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tell the difference between a good roots pattern or imitation pattern that might be dendritic but it's still intrinsic to the material or maybe some pattern welded steel that had a pattern that looked like woods but it was made by

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many layers manipulated so there's a lot of different patterns that can appear on a weapon and some of them will resemble woods but they're not patent welded blades range from the subtle to the strikingly bold it takes skill to

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produce them and they are greatly sought after the world calls them Damascus steel the pattern in pattern-welded steel is obvious how it happens I mean you can if you look at it and somebody most people when you tell them you have

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a Damascus steel blade they say oh it's made by folding well Damascus steel blade was not made by folding it's it's made by magic much of that magic takes place during the next stage now calls it thermal cycling

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although the rim treatment isn't essential an unavoidable process it has some consequences which owl has to deal with when you do the rim treatment it forms larger drains they tend to grow and they get very large and that weakens

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of material and so doing a thermal cycle they it refines the grain each time you go up in temperature and down across the threshold limit of a1 they called it it forms a new set of austenite grains which become smaller and smaller so you

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have the structure of finer and it's stronger and it will stand the deformation better this thermal cycling heating cooling and reheating manipulates the microstructure of the steel changing the nature of the grain in order to reduce the internal stresses

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that will be incurred during forging if this is not done correctly the wootz will be lost how long to leave it in the furnace how long to let it cool one of the quickest way to detect it is with a

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magnet it becomes Magnum agentic at room temperature it is magnetic at room temperature as you heat it above the Curie temperature which is just above they 1 then it becomes non-magnetic so if you want to test it some way you can

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just use a magnet and touch it if it sticks to it you know the temperatures below when it goes above let it cool back down to the magnet sticks and then go back up the number of cycles is something that

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owl has to judge it will vary according to the length of time the cake has spent undergoing the rim treatment the longer you had heated it before it would mean that the grain was larger and they tend to come down fairly rapid once you start

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cycling you know three or four cycles I like to go about six just to make sure I cover all the bases many people are making cakes and developing a pattern and saying that they have wootz steel but under the microscope you can look at

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it and you'll see that it's something different considerable patience is required to nurse the steel through all its many stages not knowing until the very end how it is going to turn out even then some wootz blades are better than others

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well the words are not the same they are not the same in pattern some of them are high quality in pattern that's why Arabs call them the jewel The Jewel blade or jewel salt which is an Arabic Muslim

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Johar a fool addict Java when we were looking at ancient swords and we're reading the literature we knew that there were some roots that was much more beautiful than other wootz and we have a good idea why that is and one of our

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efforts is to improve the look of the roots that we make to equal the Masters of the old time this little ingot is a reproduced reproduction of wootz steel made by Al Penry and it isn't a Damascus steel until a clever bladesmiths

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forges it into a blade and polishes it and on the surface you see a really neat pattern then then you can call a Damascus what I call a genuine Damascus blade or I sometimes call it a watch Damascus blade in releasing the wootz

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Damascus pattern from the cake of crucible steel the greatest art of all is in the forging after days of work preparing the ingot all can still be lost in this critical process our signals that he is ready for the

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challenge and so began many hours of forging an intensive session that continued from one day until the next [Music] every strike is carefully judged the hammer blows mustn't be too hard the risk of cracks remains and were just one

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crack all would be lost great finesse is required this is where the roots is given life in this forging session I'll had two cakes of crucible steel to work both derived from the Jordanian or the color of the metal is watched closely to be

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sure that it is at the correct temperature while under the hammer a temperature that allows ow to ease the soft metal into shape without damaging it route steel is never quenched such dramatic cooling would change the internal structure and the size of the

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grains after each round under the hammer it is slowly air cooled before returning to the fire when you start to forge it there's some things that have to be done that are only done if you have the experience you might want to call it an

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art throughout the forging Isle continues the thermal cycling principle cooling the metal and shrinking the grain between each forging and each reheat at this stage it is all about controlling the grain it is in this semi molten state that routes Damascus is

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finally made and it's not just the external shape that is created in forager the hammer and the heat also called dramatic changes to the microstructure as the material becomes denser al is able to increase the force of the hammer

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burners accelerating the process hybrid looks on with great interest observing a fellow master at work as the forging nears an end he is keen to see how the Jordanian steel will turn out after many hours of continuous labor the

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cake of crucible steel finally emerges as a bar the blank from which a sword could be produced days of work are now put to the test will it be the wootz Damascus that they are looking for some of the old blades had what's called

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dendritic steel in it and that creates a very bold pattern but it doesn't have the mechanical strength or doesn't have the pattern that the ancients realized gave the best quality in the weapon dendritic wootz would not perform near

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as well although it was a nice pattern it wasn't the original or the proper Lutz pattern you can see a dendritic pattern on the surface of all crucible Cakes dendrites crystallized like snowflakes as the metal freezes from the molten to

Speaker A

the solid state dendrites are a necessary precursor to producing a Damascus wootz pattern but the final segregation and alignment of materials only happens during the thermal cycling and forging stages just having a dendritic pattern on a blade does not

Speaker A

make it a wootz Damascus blade the pattern which was made in India and Persia Damascus was carbide clusters pattern not the alit achill pattern so that gives us the answer of is every melted crucible steel with patterns Damascus steel or not so the answer is

Speaker A

No in order to see if the newly forged bar is the right stuff al has to grind off the decarburization to create a smoother surface as possible that surface must be taken to a very high polish there must

Speaker A

be no scratches showing when he has polished it to his satisfaction how h's the bar with some acid for a first inspection I see some interesting looks to it you know I can see their stuff less so cut us a piece

Speaker A

off the end I would have chopped so and then polish it the ultimate test is to view it under the microscope and for that a small sample has to be prepared and taken to an exceptional polish the angle

Speaker A

when ready it too is etched with acid and then after four days of continuous preparation this small precious sample is taken to the microscope for the verdict the microscope is not for viewing the surface pattern but rather for

Speaker A

inspecting the microstructure of the metal this in turn will suggest what pattern to expect but more importantly it will indicate whether or not the material is genuine roots Damascus you can always move these things around and with a magnification you're only looking

Speaker A

at a very small section if you move it just a little bit you'll see something that you want to see in yeah one thing you can see we did spared us are the car buds this is good news severa dyes

Speaker A

carbines are a signature feature of the cluster sheets that al is looking for Custer sheets are one of two alternating layers in a cross-section of wootz Damascus the layers consist of one layer of iron and another layer that looks

Speaker A

like the Milky Way if you look at the Milky Way you see these array of stars that light up the sky in kind of a blurry way and in a Damascus deal when you look at it a microscope that's just what you see you

Speaker A

see millions of tiny little round white things and those are carbides and they so you're looking at a layer of carbide actually Allen I call them cluster sheets because the carbides are clustered together into a sheet morphology when I was hoping for is a

Speaker A

good alignment between these cluster sheets and the matrix of iron you see that it's got some alignment in there and these bands are just too wide they need to be see the particles are served Iser yeah they need to be you know what

Speaker A

there would be tighter these are spread too wide you've got some alignment but you don't have real tight you know to make the real bold pattern you'll have a little bit in this one but it's certainly a step in the right

Speaker A

direction remarkably at this first attempt the Jordanian or has clearly produced a basic routes Damascus steel albeit it does not meet Al's exacting standards for a strong pattern al is looking for a micro structure in the steel that will yield a well-defined

Speaker A

pattern not only for its intrinsic aesthetic value but because it will be an indicator of the Steel's inherent mechanical value spirit eyes carbides in the cluster sheets for instance help with a blades flexibility the little round particles allow that material to

Speaker A

move and without setting up stress and causing it to fracture but these carbides are also very hard giving the potential for a really keen cutting edge the hardness of the cutting edge is primarily caused by these little iron

Speaker A

carbides that are prevalent on the edge and they're held by a very tough material called pearlite so you have a more durable edge there for a lot of processes whereas the overall blade has good flexibility that a 60 Rockwell C or

Speaker A

a high hardness modern blade would not have that flexibility it would break whereas the wootz steel with a comparable cutting ability would be more durable roots Damascus steel combined hardness with toughness flexibility and durability as well as possessing an

Speaker A

astonishing and beguiling beauty connoisseurs distinguished between Indian roots Turkish wootz and Persian woods and the term Damascus has been employed as a broad generic for all patterned swords however with the discovery that the war day ores contain carbide forming vanadium it just may be

Speaker A

that originally genuine Damascus blades were specific to those that originated from the ore of this MA Saladin's my according to legend Saladin sword had the ability to cut through a silk veil floating in the air with the prospect of

Speaker A

being able to reproduce swords with oars from Saladin's own mine exciting challenges lie ahead to put these weapons through their paces our flexible worthy how hard-wearing Worley and how sharp worthy but first the team need to make a few small

Speaker A

alterations in order to produce the optimum material so you are not satisfied with this no no I know I can do better you know I know we can do better with this material I'll calculated that a slight adjustment

Speaker A

introducing more carbon at the crucible stage and perhaps a few more thermal cycles would be enough to get the Jordanian or to produce high-quality roots Damascus steel it had been an inspiring few days of experiments and discussions both Ione and Abbott were

Speaker A

encouraged by the results so it's very exciting for me to know that the Jordanian or can make would steal from it without adding anything else well that's all it seemed to me and being able to to help you bring it out in your

Speaker A

native or and that it's very interesting and very exciting to me to work with somebody from there and bringing it over to us and we work with it there to produce this pattern and steel producing it out anything is great but to produce

Speaker A

it from your native or and you've been able to come and meet me and work with me it's you know very exciting to me and I'm hoping we can do better in the near future here on it so the journey didn't

Speaker A

end and will not end here by five days and two experiments only I think it's just the start to go on well I am really excited and can't wait to see the the roots that we will made from that or the or of salahuddin

Speaker A

scathe one day God willing we will have this kind of wood steel and it will be great work on the water or will now continue back in Jordan and only an Abbott are hopefully just a few crucibles away from reclaiming the

Speaker A

heritage of authentic Damascus deal you [Music] you

Topics:wootz steelDamascus steelAl Penryhistorical metallurgyWadi minecrucible steeliron oreforging techniquespatterned bladesmedieval swords

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