... What *is* the difference between damascus and damascened?
I’m so glad you asked!
Well. This turned into a bit of an impromptu essay, so forgive me...
Damascening is a method of application of gold to a surface, usually steel. This is not gilding, but rather the surface of the steel is etched, scratched, patterned/roughed up in some way, and then the gold is burnished or pressed into it in thin sheets or in wires. It’s a physical application, rather than chemical like, say, amalgum gilding very dangerous don’t try that one at home, kids.
Damascus Steel is a trickier subject because it’s a term that’s been somewhat muddied, with researchers and musuem curators using terms without really qualifying them (hence the confusion between ‘damascened steel’ and ‘damascus steel’ in the first place), and contemporary knife makers using the term ‘damascus’ in their context with a different process... In more recent years, however, terminology has become more rigorous. Essentially it’s usually called ‘wootz’, it’s crucible steel and it’s got a pattern inherent in it, but it’s not pattern-welded steel (see below). No gold involved.
Much longer version below the cut, with images:
Damascening:
This tulwar features elements of gold decoration on the blade - text and tiger - applied to the surface of the steel. This was done either by scoring the surface or by punching, evidence of which you can see in the image (click the link below to the original so you can zoom in).
It also features kundan work on the hilt (method of gold settings). (Koftgari is another form of damascening, usually with harsher/coarser marks in the steel, and the other extreme of that is nunome-zogan, in the Japanese tradition)
Source: Wallace Collection
Damascus steel is also known as ‘wootz’, and it fetched an extremely high price because it makes an extremely high quality steel. Modern knife makers use the term ‘damascus’ to refer to pattern-welded steel, which is a different thing entirely, though it originated in mimicking wootz. The use of the term ‘damascus’ steel in museum/academic settings (rare now, as ‘wootz’ is usually used) refers to a crucible steel, ‘watered’ steel, or ‘wootz’, and not pattern-welded (see below).
Damascus or wootz is a crucible steel, meaning it was completely molten at one point. That fact is important because not every steel-smelting culture made crucible steel, which means that those who did produce it could charge more for their superior blades. The reason that ‘damascus’ blades (and also the ulfberht swords, and/or Frankish steel) were so prized in northern europe (ie. by Scandinavians (yes, ok, Vikings) and Anglo-Saxons) during the early medieval period was because they were really good swords, were harder, and held their sharp edges longer than the ‘false damascus’ blades created to imitate the natural pattern of wootz.
Wootz/damascus steel has a characteristic pattern in it, caused by large crystals of cementite (Fe3C) which, when forged out from billet to blade, create the pattern. The blades (or armour, but that’s rarer because this stuff is expensive) and later the barrels of guns were etched with acid to reveal the natural pattern. It is this pattern which makes it distinctive, and what pattern-welding tries to emulate.
Wootz, when etched, looks like this:
[x]
To make it, iron was melted down with carbonaceous material (plants, straw etc.) in a sealed crucible. The process would take several days to melt everything down into a cake of steel, and it was then allowed to cool extremely slowly (we’re talking days, not hours, which is also why it was more expensive). The cakes of crucible steel were then exported to centres of arms manufacture (including Damascus), to be coaxed and extremely skillfully forged into various weapons. Forging broke up the crystals of cementite and created the distinctive pattern. By careful forging, it was possible to maintain the pattern (it’s really easy to overheat and/or overwork it it and just bash out and destroy the pattern completely, so not all crucible steel is damascus steel...) It’s only called ‘wootz’ if you can see a pattern in it after etching.
It’s also possible to polish out the pattern with over-zealous cleaning, but you can usually get it back if you etch it again. This is a controversial subject amongst museum curators and conservators.
Wootz was largely made in India and the Middle East, and by the 18th century, we even had helmets and even things as large as shields (not always practical because it was relatively brittle, being so hard) being made out of this patterned steel in Central and South Asia. It has always been highly prized as a status object both in the past and now.
A large number of the ulfeberht swords (swords with some variant of the Frankish name ‘ulfberht’ inlaid into them) are actually not wootz, but pattern-welded steel. Pattern-welding is a process by which two steels of differing carbon content are folded together to create a pattern when etched. Originally, it’s thought to have been done to create knock-off wootz, but now it’s used by knife makers and bladesmiths to create some truly incredible works of art, and is a skill all of its own. In jewellery, copper and silver (or other precious metals) are fused together and then worked to create ‘mokume gane’, or wood grain pattern, which is similar, but not done with ferrous metals.
Modern pattern-welded steel:
[Screenshot from The Artificery, Instagram - follow him omg his work is amazing]
[Mokume gane ring by Anne Wolf - source]
Dr. Alan Williams is a leading researcher in wootz, and I spoke to him at the Wallace Collection’s Arms and Armour conference back in 2016 - he’s a Mega Nerd(tm) for sure, but he knows his stuff. Here’s a video of him talking about wootz steel at that conference if you’re interested.
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Hope that makes sense and is interesting?! I spent way too long answering this, so it’s back to writing my 12 Days of Exomas stories for now, but I’m a huge nerd so please feel free to ask me stuff like this!
Behold ! The evil Burrito that tested my patience in ways even the miles between me and my partners hasn’t ! I cannot recommend twist welding chain for those with little to no patience, but the end result should be worth it
Sample welding is a practice in the making of swords and blades for structuring the blade of several metal parts of different parts that are welded and...
OK LOOK. I get that everyone is super excited about bisexual Clarke, and I'm wildly happy about this my own self (but seriously, she's been open-mouthed gaping at Octavia since episode one, are we terribly surprised?) but can we please talk about Lexa's pattern-welded knife?
This one. This knife makes the history nerd in me cry salty tears of joy. Why? It's a type of forging used by the Norse, and others in the area, around the time of the vikings. It's made by overlaying iron and carbon and heating them at relatively low temperatures (due to smithing technology at the time, forges were not quite as effective as they could have been - pay special attention to the word relatively) - the result was a not-quite-fusing of the materials that provided higher flexibility and strength, and also caused things like this:
You can see this patterning pretty clearly in most of the shots that this knife is in. They show it off - it gets its own close-up. And they should be proud of it.
This method of forging was partly what made the vikings such a force - these weapons were less likely to break on impact and retained a sharper cutting edge, making them the Aston Martins of B.C.E. weapons technology. These folks did their homework, in every little detail. What would their armour be like? What would their language be like? How do they make their weapons? What is their culture like? And the answers don't just exist, they live and breathe.
Things like this are the reasons why I'm drooling over season two.
Wrought Iron from the river being prepared for forging. Drawn out, cut, cleaned again, then was forgewelded with nickel steel to create a billet for our engagement rings! I used the power hammer to draw everything out, had a lot of fun doing it! Our close friend did the forgeweld for us, so it would take! ( wrought iron needs to be worked yellow hot to keep it happy, we will do the rest of the forging next go. Adding some twists and drawing it out and one more twist before the final stages.
Pattern welding is the practice in sword and knife making of forming a blade of several metal pieces of differing composition that are forge-welded together and twisted and manipulated to form a pattern. Often called Damascus steel, blades forged in this manner often display bands of slightly different patterning along their entire length. These bands can be highlighted for cosmetic purposes by proper polishing or acid etching. Pattern welding was an outgrowth of laminated or piled steel, a similar technique used to combine steels of different carbon contents, providing a desired mix of hardness and toughness. Although modern steelmaking processes negate the need to blend different steels, pattern welded steel is still used by custom knifemakers for the cosmetic effects it produces.
