This is not an attempt to prove that these are wootz ingot or mill balls. It was discussed many times in several forums so I will leave it to the expert to decide. But since I was offering for sale few of these wootz/mill balls I feel I should share with you some facts and findings
I sacrificed one of this balls and submitted it to the good hands of Giora Biran, a blacksmith and a friend and this is what we have done:
The ball was cut into two halves with a disk and one of the faces flattened.
(Please note the crack in the center, also known as “pipe”. I will refer to it later.)
One half was heated to about 800 degrees and hammered down (in several heating cycles) to a flat bar shape:
One face was polished and etched to reveal a very clear pattern:
A small part of the bar was further forged to a small kitchen style blade (more and bigger blades are being worked out now), polished and etched:
