Damascus Sword Making - The "Damascene Technique" of Wootz Steel

INTRODUCTION:

Mystery, awe and wonder fill the mind as one looks upon a Damascus blade for the first time. The distinguishing "water markings" in the blade are a result of complex metallurgy and sword smithing. Damascus Steel Swords are known by some as the strongest swords ever made in history. With great hardness, incredible super elasticity (unequaled by any others), and a said ability to cut other swords in half without dulling the blade, Damascus steel swords quickly became prized possessions in the known world.

Damascus swords relied on wootz steel for strength and elasticity, and their beautiful water markings were a byproduct of the secret manufacturing process. Initial development is accredited to India (about 300AD). However, it was the Syrians who named this patterned wielded steel as "Damascus Steel" when it was reintroduced to the Western world through Damascus, Syria between 1000AD – 1300AD.

Damascus Watermarks

Although the secret art of making original 1000AD – 1300AD wootz steel was lost about 1750, today only a few techniques have been developed that can produce Damascus steel swords with beautiful water markings.

Modern Day Damascus Steel:
Today there is very little true Damascus steel produced worldwide. The term damascene technique has quite different meanings to different people. The following information is provided as clarification of the term.

There are three primary ways of making Damascus steel.

  • Wootz Steel
  • Composite Structures
  • Immersion

WOOTZ STEEL: The "True" Damascene

True Damascene blades were made only from wootz steel (with the water pattern). It was the only steel that naturally yielded the strength, elasticity (could be bent at right angles and still snap back) and had distinguishing water markings in the blade. It did not involve folding and welding two kinds of material.

A more technical definition of the Damascene pattern is that the pattern comes from a striated precipitation of Fe3C particles. It seems that it was crucial to have traces of vanadium (or equivalent) to enable proper nucleation of the Fe3C particles.

The secret art of making true wootz steel and the forging treatments used to yield a highly flexible and extremely sharp blade were lost about 1750.

COMPOSITE STRUCTURES:

During the first 2000 years of iron technology, wrought iron (or mild steel) could not be melted because of the inability to heat the metal to its melting point of 1550°C. Instead, cast iron with a lower melting point of 1130°C was the dominant material and used in large quantities by the ancient Chinese.

Modern metallurgy and forging techniques have allowed the reconstruction of blades with super elasticity and glistening water pattern designs. Basically, there are two techniques used in making modern Damascus steel:

Forge Welding: Hammering two different kinds of steel into one piece.
In this process, two different kinds of steel are forged into one piece. To achieve the correct results, temperatures need to be about 800°C, and several sheets of each metal are used. A solid compound material is formed as the multiple sheets of steel will fuse (or weld) as a result of solid state reaction and diffusion.

This new layered compound material is then folded over many times in the forging process. Extensive folding and forge welding created a homogeneous material. This process has been made famous mostly due to the techniques developed by Master Japanese Sword Smiths.

Pattern Welding:
The process of pattern welding is much more complex. Several thin steel rods are twisted and ground flat on two sides then forge welded, often with pure steel rods on the outside edges. (see diagram A below)

The pattern welding process starts with a loose stack of steel plates which are hammered into rods with a cross section of about 1cm2. Several of those rods, about 1 meter long, are produced each having either a high carbon or high phosphorous content.

Next, the rods are well twisted and ground flat on two of the sides. Once several of these twisted rods are prepared, they are then lined together with a pure steel rod on the outside edges (see diagram A below).

End rods are high carbon steel — Inner rods are the alternating twisted rods

The process also includes two independent layers of these twisted rods for the inner sections so that both sides of the blade would look different. To achieve a specific pattern down the length of the sword the twisted regions were often alternated with non-twisted regions.

With the rods positioned together they are ready to be forged welded, banged into shape, and ground to a sharp edge for a beautiful sword or dagger. When finished this blade may contain more than 500 layers of metals.

IMMERSION:

A third technique is achieved by immersion of a wrought iron package in liquid cast iron.

COSMETIC WATER MARKING:

It is worth noting that with current technologies artificial (or cosmetic) water markings can be applied to a steel surface with sophisticated lasers. As well, this treatment can range from acid etching to bluing or browning the surface - depending on the materials used in the bar.

References:

  • The Key Role of Impurities in Ancient Damascus Steel Blades, by J. D. Verhoeven, A. H. Pendray, and W. E. Dauksch
  • Damascene Technique in Metal Working by Prof. Dr. Helmut Föll
  • The Figiel dagger: a preliminary report, by Domain Science Letters
  • Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World, by S. Srinivasan and S. Ranganathan (Department of Metallurgy, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
  • Wootz steel (True Damascus), by J.D Verhoeven
  • Wootz Steel, by Richard Furrer

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