Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Subject: High-Status Khanjar Style Dagger: Salvaged/Recycled Blade Theory & Material

A. G. Maisey · 17th July 2026, 04:09 AM

Nobody has suggest automotive spring steel for this blade, the notable thing about it is the carbon, the quoted figure is within the range of ultra high carbon, it would be difficult to work in a forge, and in my opinion would be too brittle for use as a tool, for a short cutting blade it would work OK, but not for anything that was intended to sustain impact.

I would think that this material was produced in a low tech native smelt. Wootz? No idea, but not everything produced in a low tech smelt is wootz.

I have a lump of similar stuff that was given to me by a local smith who does a smelt once a year, more or less as a social gathering, & that smelt contains all the odds & ends of ferric material he has accumulated during the past 12 months or so.

17th July 2026, 04:09 AM	#6
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,248	Nobody has suggest automotive spring steel for this blade, the notable thing about it is the carbon, the quoted figure is within the range of ultra high carbon, it would be difficult to work in a forge, and in my opinion would be too brittle for use as a tool, for a short cutting blade it would work OK, but not for anything that was intended to sustain impact. I would think that this material was produced in a low tech native smelt. Wootz? No idea, but not everything produced in a low tech smelt is wootz. I have a lump of similar stuff that was given to me by a local smith who does a smelt once a year, more or less as a social gathering, & that smelt contains all the odds & ends of ferric material he has accumulated during the past 12 months or so.