__________

DAMASCUS
STEEL
BY: Charles Hanshaw
North Buncombe senior project
Zimmerman
Fall 2016
English IV

Man has made spears and knifes to hunt for food, then they used those same weapons to
fight wars. They made these weapons with pieces of stone and wood, later they evolved the
materials to metals like copper and brass, eventually going to iron and steel. These were the
metals with which Damascus steel would rise above and take the throne as the ultimate metal for

the making of weapons. Damascus steel has many uses but many use it to forge daggers,
swords, or blades of any type. The process transforms pieces of metal into a beautiful blade
with dark and light swirls that form a design unlike any other form of art can recreate.
However the process is long and tedious, and it makes the forging tough, the product can
be the most beautiful if done correctly.
Damascus steel is the fusion of two different elements to make one singular tough steel.
Damascus steel was made from a raw material called wootz steel.(http). Damascus was a type
of steel originally forged in the middle east. It was made of two different elements often
including a high carbon content, which is where most metallurgists theorize that the steels
superior durability comes from. Damascus was formed from a different steel called Wootz.
Wootz was an exceptional grade of iron ore steel first made in southern and south central India
and Sri Lanka, perhaps as early as 300 BC.(http). Wootz was the steel that damascus was forged
from. Wootz was mined from certain regions of India and to separate the steel from the dirt, they
would complete a process called blooming. They would take the raw ore and place it in a coal
forge where it would get hot enough that anything but the ore would burn up and the steel would
melt down into the bottom of the forge and create a bloom of steel and this is what they called
wootz.
Wootz steel was not completely perfect it had certain trace elements that came from the
deposits where it was mined.first, the wootz ingot would have to have come from an ore deposit
that provided significant levels of certain trace elements, notably, Cr, Mo, Nb, Mn, or V. this idea
is consistent with the theory of some authors who believe the blades with good patterns were
only produced from wootz ingots made in southern India apparently around Hyderabad.(by
manipulating). By looking at the elemental structure of the damascus made from wootz ingots

the location from which most of the ingots were produced can be made. Wootz was not just
mined in southern India, some metallurgists believe people in Turkmenistan and Lebanon also
mined the famous metal alloy.even though we can essentially come up with the elements that tie
into the final product of a true Damascus steel. The process is forever lost. The name for the
revered steel did not come from the place that it was forged.The name Damascus apparently
originated with these steels. The steel itself was produced not in damascus, but in India and
became known in english literature in the early 19th century as wootz steel, as it is referred to
here. (by manipulating). The actual name for the steel was wootz which is the steel that was
mined from certain deposits in India and the middle east. In india the steel was called Ukku in
the indian language of karnataka. The name damascus actually came from the pattern on the steel
itself after forging it and not from the place it was forged, Damascus Syria, the pattern on the
finished work looked watery or damask.

Damascus steel patterns.

India was not the only place Damascus steel ingots could come from.In the year 200,
this steel was traded from India and sent to master bladesmiths throughout the middle east.
Lebanon and Turkmenistan may have also been another ancient source of wootz steel.(maes).
Though information on the mining of the steel in Lebanon and turkmenistan is limited the search
for other sources of it are still sought after. The people who forged with it were from all over the
middle east, knew techniques and didnt share the process with anyone but their apprentices, the

secret to damascus steel was soon lost when the sources of the steel were gone. Making the steel
again would be impossible because the process is unknown to the blacksmiths of today.
The process to make a steel much like the ones made centuries before is known.the
pattern welded steels were produced by forge welding sheets of high- and low-carbon steels.(by
manipulating). Today the process to forge a steel much like the damascus steel made years before
is called pattern welding. Pattern welded steel before it is forged is multiple steel plates of highly
different levels of carbon content stacked and then welded in place. The pattern of the forged
product of pattern welded steel has the same watery looking patterns of damascus steel. There is
no knowledge of the damascus blades forged centuries before because the art of making such
steel has been lost. Although the patterns on the pattern welded steel made today looks just the
same as the damascus steel forged in the middle east, the molecular structure of the steel
however is different.

The process to make pattern welded steel is long and time consuming.This composite
was then folded and forge-welded together, and the fold/forge cycle was repeated until a large
number of layers was obtained.(by manipulating). The process takes a plethora of time, and a
great deal of energy. To make pattern welded steel blacksmiths would start out with multiple
plates of high and low-carbon steel, welding the plates in alternating layers, then making it one

homogeneous billet by forge welding the entire thing. After completing this task you would
begin the cycle of folding the metal over itself essentially obtaining more layers each fold. By
doing this process a blacksmith can obtain a steel that is much stronger than any steel. Its layers
contribute to the strength and flexibility of the blade that was made thereafter. By looking out
where blacksmithing was seen as one of the most valuable trades, and where the most intense
blades could be found you would look to Japan. The finest blades ever made, he added, were
the samurai swords of Japan. Whose blades may contain a million layers of steel. The layers
resulted from hammering out a bar to double its length, then folding it over as many as 32
times.(sullivan). Japanese blacksmiths made swords to have the edge and the strength to cut a
fully grown pig in half. The steel used for forging was Hagane hard steel, Kawagane medium
steel, and Shigane soft steel. The japanese bladesmiths would take all three of these steels and
pattern weld the steels together to create a sword that is made of different parts but is unified
completely. This style of sword making creates the strongest known blades in the world.
However these are considered the strongest known blades, true damascus blades were considered
to be the most elite.

Damascus steel was coveted by every blacksmith in Europe at the time of the crusades.
Blacksmiths in Europe attempted to match the steel, using the pattern welding technique of
alternating layers of steel and iron, folding and twisting the metal during the forging
process.(http). The steel was known to the blacksmiths in europe only as wootz steel. It was
highly revered as a blade that could hold an edge after slicing a rock in half. This thought of such
a blade was why European blacksmiths were coveting it. Pattern welding was still not the correct
way to get the damascus steel that was so craved by the sword makers of the 11th and 15th
centuries. The process to make such a tough and durable steel is still unknown, bladesmiths
could never recreate the strength and durability that is renowned and known as damascus steel.
In the middle ages to obtain steel it had to be mined. In middle age metal technology, steel for
swords or other objects was typically obtained through the bloomery process, which required
heating the raw ore with charcoal to create a solid product, known as a bloomof combined iron
and slag. (http). The blooming process required iron raw ore and an adequate amount of coal for

the fire. The process to make a bloom of steel would often take hours blacksmiths would mostly
have begun in the morning and not ended till night-fall. This process would also include a
bloomery, a bloomery is type of furnace that takes raw iron ore and turns it into a bloom of steel,
or sponge iron as some blacksmiths call it, this bloom is then further forged into wrought iron.
Blacksmiths today often obtain the steel dust from other builds and then use the bloomery
process to obtain the bloom of steel and forge from that. This process creates an enduring steel
that is robust and intense.

To produce Wootz steel there was a similar process to the bloomery process. Wootz was
extracted from raw iron ore and formed using the crucible method to melt, burn away impurities
and add important ingredients, including a carbon content between 1.3-1.8% by weight - wrought
iron typically has carbon content of around 0.1%. (Http). To produce wootz ingots the miners in
those times would use this crucible method like a bloomery process was used. They would take
the raw ore and place it in a very hot crucible and burn away the impurities in the ore, this would
usually include the dirt and slag and other rock that was in it. This would also give a chance for
the miners to put certain ingredients that may be needed to make the steel stronger, this may have
been its carbon content that was needed to be introduced. By doing this method the wootz ingot

would be very malleable when heated and be forged to any shape the blacksmith would want to
forge it to. Sadly the method at which to forge it is unknown, blacksmiths can not forge this type
of steel again because it's forging process is gone. The process to make pattern welded steel is
known all over the world. damascus is made of iron and steel, welded into three layers, heated
and hammered flat. Mr. Moran would the fold the piece, re-weld it and hammer it out again. He
would repeat the process eight times, exponentially multiplying the layers into as many as 500.
(Holley). To forge with damascus steel can be a hard task. When forging the steel, the layers of
it can represent the unity of the various metals that tie into this singular powerful steel. Often
taking hours just to make the steel itself before the actual shaping can begin, the process included
taking the various metals and forging them into a homogenous billet of steel, or bar of steel. Mr.
Moran often did these types jobs he even worked for a prince to make a dagger. The beauty of
the finished product is intricate and intense because of the patterns created on the blade. But the
ability of this type of steel for bladesmithing is that it can hold an edge unlike any other steel
ever forged. Its strength and flexibility is what the steels name is affiliated with.
The steel was revered by many blacksmiths in the time of the crusades when it was really
popular. Damascus steel, an alloy prized by swordsmiths during the middle ages because of its
strength and flexibility. (Holley). During the crusades in the 11th and the 15th centuries the steel
was highly prized among the Islamic generals and their European enemies, because of the steel's
ability to hold its edge better than regular swords and to flex more before it would actually break,
it was doubted that the swords made from this steel would even break at all. The steel's
popularity was so great tales were made of the crusades and however had the best sword was the
obvious champion, often the individual with the damascus, or in that time wootz, steel. The
research to regain the ability to make such a powerful steel has been lost. A mystery, to those

seeking to recapture the technique, was the property of wootz that produced such blades malleable when heated, yet extraordinarily tough when cooled. (sullivan). The only true
mystery was how the steel could actually be produced, researchers have actually taken samples
of damascus blades from the artifacts from the crusades. And discovered many trace elements
that are tied into the making of the steel. But the actual forging process done by the middle
eastern blacksmiths is unknown, due to the fact that the mines in and around india began to dry
up, as far as metal alloys go, and when the process no longer worked the blacksmiths did not
teach their apprentices the process to forge the steel any more, thinking that it would be useless
to teach. Therefore the steel will forever be lost and never be discovered again. The only thing
for sure known is that to make the steel would require a significant amount of carbon and other
trace elements. The average blacksmith will only be able to make a pattern welded steel due to
the fact damascus can no longer be forged with.
Charlie Ellis an avid blacksmith in the asheville area has worked with many metals and has been
working at a shop here in weaverville. Ellis has been a blacksmith for 11 years in that time he
has forged daggers and knives, and door hinges or basic household items such as coat hooks.
Since Ellis is a blacksmith he has also worked with a variety of metals including copper, brass,
sterling silver, and damascus steel, or pattern welded steel to be correct. He said having to forge a
damascus billet was one of the hardest things, mainly because he was working with two steels,
but although the procedure was hard the product was the most durable steel he had ever forged,
after forging the steel he would have to etch the steel with an acid that would cause the light and
dark swirls to show up on the surface creating a thing of beauty. During his time as a blacksmith
when he started forging with damascus, he was just starting out, but damascus was not the only
metal that he worked with he had worked with many different metals during his time but he still

claims that damascus was the most interesting and the most intense steel he had ever worked
with.
Damascus has been coveted over the centuries for the pattern on its surface and its
strength and flexibility. Its uses deal with weapons like swords and daggers, often creating
a weapon unlike any other. Although the process to make Damascus steel is tough and time
consuming, repeating a process of heating and folding, heating and folding. The product is
beautiful and strong, that can be used for anything. The ingredients to make wootz are known
the process is not, because the blacksmiths of that time sought to keep it a closely guarded secret.
Therefore making wootz steel is impossible now, this includes damascus steel as well but today
you can forge pattern welded steel which is the most popular steel today for many it is the best
steel known to man. The process to make such steel is tough, but the product is still quite
beautiful and exquisite. Damascus is the best steel known to man and how to make it is unknown
but it is still coveted and every day is a step closer to its process.