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Originally Posted by Emanuel
Actually Ariel you bring me to one reason for my questions 
Was there any such thing as plain steel? Besides crucible and pattern welding what other methods were there?
We do know that some crucible came out without pattern but it was still crucible.
This is excluding the European trade blades that were "plain" steel. |
Surely, forging crucible steel at high temperatures would eliminate the pattern and the final product would become "plain"
However, Indians also used furnaces that produced bloomery iron, i.e. plain steel. Infinitely more economical, quicker and simpler than wootz.
I do not see much mechanical difference between plain steel and wootz. Indeed, plain European blades were highly valued in India since the Contact, and modern steels leave wootz in the dust. My guess is that wootz was highly prized primarily for its esthetic ( johar) appeal mixed with highly developed Eastern sacral imagery and the effort that went into its production. Not for nothing do we read about Japanese and Indonesian smiths forging a single blade in several weeks and artificially delaying the final product. Caucasian smiths were making a plain shashka blade in a couple of days, but refused orders for a damascus one: far too much coal and far too much effort.