Wootz or not?

[Jens Nordlunde]

In Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet, the prince did not say. ‘Two beers or not two beers – that is the question, no he said, ‘Wootz or no wootz – that is the question’.

I am sure that a number of the blades from Deccan and the south are mande of wootz, although it is not shown, and few try to etch these blades.

Another type of blades which could be made of wootz, are the burnished sword blades. Burnishing blades strated relative late, due to fashion, but a lot of old blades were burnished, and some of these can have been made of wootz.