3 ms·

I just watched a recent documentary on an attempt to recreate Wootz steel. Worth checking out if you're interested in the subject. https://www.youtube.com/watc

• dmix 8y ago
  Al Pendray in the documentary also wrote a book about Wootz and explained why he believes the technique was 'lost to history': > The smiths that produced the high-quality blades would most likely have kept the process for making these blades a closely guarded secret to be passed on only to their apprentices. The smiths would be able to teach the apprentices the second and third points listed, but point one is something they would not have known. There is no difference in physical appearance between an ingot with the proper minor elements present and one without. Suppose that during several generations all of the ingots from India were coming from an ore body with the proper amount of minor elements present, and blades with good patterns were being produced. Then, after a few centuries, the ore source may have been exhausted or become inaccessible to the smithing community; therefore, the technique no longer worked. With time, the smiths who knew about the technique died out without passing it on to their apprentices (since it no longer worked), so even if a similar source was later found, the knowledge was no longer around to exploit it. The possible validity of this theory could be examined if data were available on the level of carbide-forming elements in the various ore deposits in India used to produce wootz steel. http://www.thetruthaboutknives.com/2017/06/knifemaking-legend-al-pendray-father-of-modern-wootz-has-passed/ http://www.thetruthaboutknives.com/2017/06/knifemaking-legen...