Where's the Wootz?

[Ian]

I would strongly recommend searching this site for answers to questions about wootz. The Ethnographic Forum has several excellent threads on the subject. Anything that Dr Ann Feuerbach has written on these Forums is well worth careful consideration. Her PhD and subsequent work has been on wootz. She has an article on this subject on the Vikingsword home page (click on the Viking sword at the top of this page). In this article she states:

"So-called “watered” or “damascus” steel objects were made of crucible steel. Crucible steel was a specific method of steel making and it was only produced in certain areas. Despite the common use of the term “damascus”, there is no evidence that it was ever produced in Damascus, Syria (Elgood, 1994, 103-108), but rather in various locations in India, Sri Lanka, Central Asia and Persia. Its appearance in other locations was due to trade or booty. Among evidence for the trade in finished products, there is also evidence for trade in intermediate products including ingots and steel bars, destined to be forged into shape and decorated in different places to reflect local taste and use of the consumer.

I favor Ann's opinion about wootz over anything you might find on You Tube. Also, there has been considerable debate about the quality of modern crucible steel and its relation to traditional wootz. The consensus seems to be that "modern wootz" is not the same as traditional wootz. You can find these discussions also on the Ethnographic Forum pages.