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Originally Posted by A.alnakkas
Salam,
I am not sure about the smell and taste part. Because some of the finer blades are polished and cleaned very often which means they'd likely smell and taste of polish material. The finger flick and sound thing is something that I am beginning to see often, but to detect the material of the steel rather than the quality, as wootz supposedly sounds different from other steels.
Anyways, one of my new khanjars with a rhino hilt arrived afew weeks ago and it seems to have a wootz blade, a rarity in Omani khanjars. Will post pictures once I am done with t he etching and satisfied with the result.
Lotfy
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Salaams A.alnakkas ~ I know it sounds very odd...but tasting the blade ... and smelling it are very much the old way of determining a blades quality...A good blade has the aroma of ...herbs and sweaty socks ! as does the taste. The old folks don't clean the blades with metal polish.
Wootz blades are very rare because they simply don't go for that as a style but locally made blades are sought after ...and they are laminated. I suspect that a wootz blade could have come from India or Iran/Afghanistan along with the generally known name of Johar...In fact I was just reading a fine article by Dr Ann Feuerbach in which she mentions the wootz material from which I believe the word Johar originates; Poulad Jauherder.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.