good morning
your making very large assumptions about wootz being poor, and you know what happens when you assume
actually, when wootz is processed well....and you put the carbide where you want it to be... wootz can be an excellent sword steel
( carbide being the white lines in wootz... which are actually little globes in clusters when done properly.... )
-there is a good deal of testing done on the material... i have put both my wootz steel and
ancient wootz steel through the paces for a 1hour documentary...
Ric F has done lots of testing on wootz, and has published it on the net and youtube
I've cut tatami mats, pillows, silk scarves, wood dowels, 12 to 15inch cubes of meat ( size of a torso, or thigh )
here is the revelation !!!!
-- of all the things i've cut, the meat offered little .... very little resistance... a pumpkin was more difficult to cut... and that was effortless
-- People have to change their perception that the body is tough and will offer some safety .... it will not
tatami is suppose to be a good material for testing and comparing - it was so easily parted to pieces with a shamshir that we decided to show off... and slice the large roll several times into pieces before the first piece had touched the ground
a sharp shamshir/tulwar will indeed, leave you in pieces
now that is established
the etch on wootz is merely a surface oxide.. it can be smeared or removed through use... it can be renewed at any time through re-etching ... it has no bearing what so ever on the function of the sword
India being a British colony was no doubt encouraged to adopt English steel... otherwise why would they drop hundreds of years of tradition... they did produce their own regular bloom steel... so they did have the option prior to the English visit, to use either wootz or bloom steel
the English did have military standards .... and that does help to control product variability ... so you know what your getting ...
do you not think that Assadallah was a form of standardization.. i do ! ... look at curvature of blade, distal taper, etc ... there are many hints of standards
wootz does work as well as modern plain carbon steels.. i can't tell the difference between wootz and 1050,1060,1075,1080, 1095 carbon steels etc... but we do have alloys such as L6 and s7 that offer very high toughness... ( but where does that toughness come into play ???? )
how does flesh rate on the Rockwell scale of hardness... Swords are meant to cut flesh ...period ! I think you'll find a few rockwell points up or down offers you no comfort
none of this is a surprise .... wootz steel has proved itself through history and wars... no bias from modern books or collectors will change that