Hi
oddly... i do have abit that is suppose to be looked at.. and hopefully i'll get some good pic's from it...
but that is the problem right there... my steel is a modern crucible steel... and there is no way to make a connection a solid connection to the past.. .. i try to use the old recipes that are out there... .... ..it's like baking a cake with a list of ingredients and process... made by a person who is a casual observer..... ..... so there are alot of pieces missing to the puzzle..
i've read about the Zschokke swords and have real difficulty with some of the study..... such a narrow sample generalized to a whole sword population should be taken with a grain of salt.... it totally overlooks low carbon wootz... and other types of wootz...its not all made the same way..
-- also ... there are many ways wootz can be hardened... i'd like to hear about martensite... seemingly overlooked for some bizarre reason ?
actually what we really need is a series of studies.... from blades in crucible steel producing areas... and other regions... ... also the studies must be done by people who arent' going to benefit financially from the study..
( i know i'm asking alot... but i can dream )
onto my homebrew
I've said this in the past... that my steel functions much like a 1080 carbon steel... so i've never seen magic properties, just a very decent knife steel.....
oh by the way... if you want to read more about uhcs, det, detwad... theres tonnes of patents on the stuff... back in university i used to love to read it...
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/5,445,685
check the references..... and click on the blue links for more.... also look at the studies...
-- enough superplasticity to boggle the mind
oh and by the way... i just did a little tutorial on SFI about my forging process... . but be warned... I went picture crazy and the download might bore you to tears..
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=74040
take care
Greg