Identifying Modern Wootz

[Silver John]

I recently saw this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsYool-JVI

The smith uses modern bearing steel (52100?) melted in a crucible with small amount of powdered graphite and glass. The knife produced from the ingot had a remarkably wootz like pattern.

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Silver John

I recently saw this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsYool-JVI

The smith uses modern bearing steel (52100?) melted in a crucible with small amount of powdered graphite and glass. The knife produced from the ingot had a remarkably wootz like pattern.

I would say it IS wootz. He used bearing steel as the base metal but re-melted it in a crucible, changed its carbon content, and ended up with wootz.

Yet, the pattern is very different from the antique watery pattern.