Wootz - The True Damascus Steel?
81,210
Published 2024-04-22
Written version of this video's information: knifesteelnerds.com/2024/04/22/wootz-the-true-dama…
00:00 Introduction to Wootz
02:56 Composition and Hardenability
08:14 Microstructure
10:04 Toughness
12:15 Edge Retention
14:53 Wootz Questions
22:18 Conclusions
All Comments (21)
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It's only Wootz if it's grown in the Woot region of France, otherwise it's just called sparkling Damascus.
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This is a great study, thanks! Great work by all, particularly Spencer on making and providing this Wootz!
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If "Wootz" is referencing the ancient material - then I think making it with modern methods in bulk would affect the term used - like lab grown gems vs natural. Your tangents were not a distraction and appreciated in fact as it's hard to balance the myth of steel with the practicality of modern science.
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Thank you so much for doing this. This will be a great place to send people who constantly rattle on about wootz being some type of indestructible super steel.
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I like what FZ Knives does with his crucible “Wootz” He uses modern steels from drill bits/tool steel types mixed with powdered steels, carbon and other alloying agents. Beautiful patterns that have got to be much tougher than historical wootz.
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I always enjoy your content. Your website has helped me a lot in understanding metallurgy in general. Ive learned more about metallurgy from your videos/website than I have from any of my university material science courses and really appreciate how you put to rest a lot of the debates about what is best wether it be damascus, super-steels, etc. I look forward to seeing what you do next👍
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Well, we all know that you can't get the legendary hardness without quenching it in the blood of your enemies, so there's your problem. Seriously though -- great video, great scientific approach, and I'd love to see more with other combinations for a "better, modern wootz."
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Very good video. One nice inclusion is the acknowledgement that there is a vast variety of wootz compositions as well as heat treatments, each with vastly different material properties
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This is the video i was looking for all these years
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Woot
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Thank you very much Larrin for this great study and video!
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Fascinating, as usual!
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Thank you Larrin!
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Thank you! This filled in a lot of gaps for me with regards to heat treating.
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"We can make better steel today". I can hear them coming out of the wood work 🐜 🪰🪳🪳🦟
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Interesting discussion.. thanks for sharing
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If you haven't yet, a good book to look into is Medieval Islamic Swords and Swordmaking: Kindi's Treatise 'On swords and their kind' by Robert G. Hoyland and Brian Gilmour. I read through it last year, and while the wording isn't the clearest in English, it seemed to me that the wootz swordsmiths had a pretty good understanding of optimizing hardness and toughness for the particular blade through changes in heat treatment.
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Good video!! Awesome stuff!!! Really nice to see someone not always cranking out high carbide or super steel videos.
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Great video, very insightful.
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Yea boyy another KSN vid!
