Damascus Steel - the High Tech Knife Steel of the 12th Century

Damascus Steel is a broad category ofover it (nickel keeps steel flexible), then
metallurgical techniques used to make higherhammering them together, often times trying to
technology knives and sword blades in the 12thfold the steel back so that there's a pattern of
through 18th centuries. Prior to the Bessemerhigh carbon steel (providing rigidity) and softer
process which allows steel to be made in largenickel steel (maintaining flexibility and the softness
quantities with exact control over the amount ofneeded to sharpen the weapon with period tools).
carbon in the mix, steel was made in an artisanalDamascus steel shows a distinctive pattern - the
method - it was made in small batches, andhigh carbon steel is darker than the nickel steel,
making a batch large enough to make a swordand there's a pattern of cells that can look almost
was a technical challenge.like snakeskin or running water through the blade,
Steel is iron with carbon impurities; the best timeas the hot blade is quenches in pickling brine. (This
to mix in the carbon impurities is when the steel isbrine will tarnish the high carbon steel before the
hot. The archetypal image of a blacksmith strikingnickel steel). Similar patterns can be found in
sparks from a red hot steel blade that we see inpattern-welded steel swords from Northern
movies and popular culture stems from needingEurope and the "folded steel" swords of the
to distribute the carbon (from coke or charcoal)Japanese, both of which have been mythologized
through the blade. You'd hammer the steel while(as has Damascus steel) into weapons that can
it's glowing hot, turn the blade over, hammer itcut rock, bodies and machine gun barrels.
again, and reheat. The aim of doing this was toDamascus steel fell out of fashion for two
make sure that the carbon granules were brokenreasons. The first is that it's incredibly labor
to the right size in the alloy. (Modern steel makingintensive to make, and the second was that with
allows much greater precision than merelythe Bessemer process, modern steelmaking
hammering the nodules out). The more carbonallowed for comparable steels at a fraction of the
there is in the steel, the harder it is, and the morecost. Indeed, the leaf springs in a typical
rigid the steel is.automobile or light truck can be ground down to
Damascus steel, in spite of the mythologies thatmake better swords than ever existed in
have built up around it, was simply a technique ofantiquity in terms of quality and ability to hold an
taking high carbon steel ingots (usually "wootz"edge.
steel imported from India), hammering or drawingYou can follow the link to look at some Damascus
them flat, and then putting a layer of charcoalSteel Blades.
over them, then a layer of higher nickel alloy steel