A little polish in the time of COVID

ariel · 28th June 2020, 01:09 AM

Generally, Caucasian bladesmiths did not work with wootz at all. The exception to the rule was Geurk Eliarov ( Elizarov, Elizarashvili) who used Indian ingots and very questionably, his son Kahraman.
Although I have a Georgian bulat (wootz ) blade. A very similar twin of it is in the Hermitage museum and you can see it in the Miller's book " Kaukasiske vabben..." , but no wootz is mentioned. Miller dated it to the early 18th century, well before Eliarov's birth.
Thus, we still may not know the whole story.
In the 19th century, Daghestani baldesmiths , the main blade manufacturers for the entire Caucasus, avoided orders for mechanical damascus blades like a plague. They viewed them as too expensive in terms of coal requirements and time/ effort consuming.

As to Anosov.... He worked for many years trying to make bulat, including using crushed diamond as a source of carbon, but nothing came out of it. Suddenly, a Russian Captain Massalsky was sent to Persia, and brought back a full description of the process. Both Massalsky and Anosov's papers were published in the same issue of the Russian metallurgical journal, and from that moment Anosov started mass producing what he called "bulat of the best Persian patterns". Regretfully, all the existing Anosov's blades show low-contrast Sham at the most. Personally, I am not sure that Anosov "rediscovered" the secret of bulat. At the most, he got instructions received from Persian masters how to obtain ingots ( of whatever quality), but was totally clueless about the secrets of forging. He sent a "bulat" yataghan as a gift to Faraday together with very flattering letter, but one can see small smudges of something vaguely resembling bulat only at the tip of the blade. Faraday never responded to Anosov's letter.

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28th June 2020, 01:09 AM	#9
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Generally, Caucasian bladesmiths did not work with wootz at all. The exception to the rule was Geurk Eliarov ( Elizarov, Elizarashvili) who used Indian ingots and very questionably, his son Kahraman. Although I have a Georgian bulat (wootz ) blade. A very similar twin of it is in the Hermitage museum and you can see it in the Miller's book " Kaukasiske vabben..." , but no wootz is mentioned. Miller dated it to the early 18th century, well before Eliarov's birth. Thus, we still may not know the whole story. In the 19th century, Daghestani baldesmiths , the main blade manufacturers for the entire Caucasus, avoided orders for mechanical damascus blades like a plague. They viewed them as too expensive in terms of coal requirements and time/ effort consuming. As to Anosov.... He worked for many years trying to make bulat, including using crushed diamond as a source of carbon, but nothing came out of it. Suddenly, a Russian Captain Massalsky was sent to Persia, and brought back a full description of the process. Both Massalsky and Anosov's papers were published in the same issue of the Russian metallurgical journal, and from that moment Anosov started mass producing what he called "bulat of the best Persian patterns". Regretfully, all the existing Anosov's blades show low-contrast Sham at the most. Personally, I am not sure that Anosov "rediscovered" the secret of bulat. At the most, he got instructions received from Persian masters how to obtain ingots ( of whatever quality), but was totally clueless about the secrets of forging. He sent a "bulat" yataghan as a gift to Faraday together with very flattering letter, but one can see small smudges of something vaguely resembling bulat only at the tip of the blade. Faraday never responded to Anosov's letter.