The export of ingots

[Jens Nordlunde]

It is known, that an enormous amount of ingots were exported from India and Sri Lanka, from very early times. The export went to countries like Arabia, Yemen, and East Africa. The Romans and Egyptians knew about the Indian steel, as well as many others. We read about the watered blades from Arabia, but so far I have only read about the very good Yemen blades, but not about watering, and what about the ingots exported to East Africa? Does this mean that they made the blades, but did not etch them, or what?

[Emanuel]

Hello Jens,

If Sri Lanka also produced crucible steel, would there be examples of kastanes piha kaetta with watered blades? I wasn't aware that these weapons had such steel.
Regards,
Emanuel

[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Emanuel,

The export of iron, from Sri Lanka and south India is well established, so I don’t see why wootz should not have been used, when making kastanes piha kaetta blades, but I have never seen any – maybe the owners have not tried to have a look, or maybe wootz was not used for these blades, for some reason or other – I really don’t know.