Hello Marius,

you may be right. Lord Egerton describes a technique in his book (Indian and Oriental Arms) were two bars of steel are connected with fire welding, to improve the steel characteristics. But the structure of the technical parts of the book is a little confusing. So it is unclear whether he means wootz or laminated steel. He writes like a man, who has seen the process from a distance without explanations. So there are some corrections in the footnotes of later editions.

Laminated steel means steel which is folded to homogenize and refine the inner structure and bring the carbon content to the perfect level (~0,85%).

For example if you have antique pattern welded steel, both or all types steel are laminated before.

The failures could result from the treatment of the ingot before forging out the blade, during forging out the blade or maybe they had forgotten techniques, in which they were able to make fire welding with wootz at lower temperatures.

If you are realy interested in this topic, I have some links to a very good modern smith from Finland. He is able to make wootz like in the 18th ct., wonderful watered steel, but not as perfectly even as in old days.


Roland

Hello Roland and thank you for the info!

I am generally familiar with metallurgy as I studied it in the university, but that of course doesn't teach you too much about wootz.

So I would appreciate very much if you can give me the link to the Finnish guy!

Best regards,

Marius

Is it possible to see this Finnish guy's blades?

Hello Ariel,

I have seen them and I know the guy from 2013. I believe he only produces sham.

From all I have seen Zaqro Nonikashvili is the closest to the old thing. And instead of keeping his method secret he openly publicized it...

Regards,

Marius

Very nice sir

G'day Guys,

I came across another image of the Lion Pictogram on a Persian blade. Very similar to mine, although a little better done. Again it shows that "face" peering over the lion's back, but in more detail this time.

Cheers,
Bryce

G'day Guys,
I have often wondered what sort of material the grip is made from. It appears to be some sort of horn. Can any one shed some light on what sort of horn it is likely to be?
Cheers,
Bryce