Viking Swords and Wootz

katana · 15th January 2009, 02:14 PM

Not being a metallurgist

but extremely interested in the forging of blades, could someone please help explain....
....am I correct in thinking that if a billet of wootz is forged, normalised, quenched and tempered the structure of the wootz is altered and the surface pattern lost...would that mean that crucible steel forged in the same way as sponge iron ( as perhaps viking smiths would have done) the resulting blade would also not have the same crystalline structure. (assuming wootz and crucible steel are not the same)

If so ...would the quality of the blade suffer, now that the structure of the crucible steel or wootz is much more homogenised after repeated hammering and folding ?

Would the carbon content of the crucible steel increase with the repeated heating in a charcoal forge ....if so wouldn't the higher carbon content make the blade increasingly brittle?

Thank you

Regards David

15th January 2009, 02:14 PM	#10
katana Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Posts: 2,658	Not being a metallurgist but extremely interested in the forging of blades, could someone please help explain.... ....am I correct in thinking that if a billet of wootz is forged, normalised, quenched and tempered the structure of the wootz is altered and the surface pattern lost...would that mean that crucible steel forged in the same way as sponge iron ( as perhaps viking smiths would have done) the resulting blade would also not have the same crystalline structure. (assuming wootz and crucible steel are not the same) If so ...would the quality of the blade suffer, now that the structure of the crucible steel or wootz is much more homogenised after repeated hammering and folding ? Would the carbon content of the crucible steel increase with the repeated heating in a charcoal forge ....if so wouldn't the higher carbon content make the blade increasingly brittle? Thank you Regards David