Five Myths About Damascus Steel

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What is Damascus Steel?

There are two major steel types that are called Damascus:

1. Crucible, or Wootz, steel was first produced in India and Central Asia and produced into swords anciently from at least the 3rd century AD [1]. It is made by producing small ingots of high carbon steel that are then forged and thermal cycled in a specific manner to lead to carbide bands that produce the final pattern when the steel is etched [2][3]:

2. Pattern-welded steel is the result of forge welding two or more different steel types together that will etch at different rates and therefore provide contrast in the final product [4]:

Pattern welded steel has also been around for many centuries, from approximately the 2nd century AD [5], produced in swords in Europe in different locations such as Scandinavia. A similar process was also used by Japanese swordsmiths. Pattern welding was also commonly used for the production of gun barrels prior to the 20th century; the process was required so that strips of steel could for formed into a round barrel.

Myth: Bill Moran first named pattern-welded steel “Damascus” steel

This idea is currently summarized on the Wikipedia page for Damascus steel:

However, pattern welded steel has been called Damascus since well before Bill Moran, and from many different sources. Pattern-welded steel has been conflated with crucible Damascus steel at least as early as 1824 [6], as described in this 1837 article on Damascus steel [7]:

“Another method, adopted in ignorance of the true cause, or merely for the sake of ornament, is not uncommonly met with in Georgian swords and daggers, and in those of Russia, and other countries, forming a central line along the blade, and made by a process similar to that employed for the manufacture of gun-barrels in India, and now well known in Europe; consisting of alternate laminae, of iron and steel, twisted in a spiral direction, and welded together; this arrangement is, however, totally different to the true Damascus, and wholly unfit for the edge of any cutting instrument, being incapable of producing uniformity of temper. A few celebrated swords made by Goork of Taflis, almost all of which are at present in the possession of Kings, are made of Georgian steel, the ore being obtained from the Siberian mines; they have a broad band of this kind of artificial Damascus near the back of the blade. One of them I have lately examined, and do not consider it superior to those of our own general make, in respect to its useful qualities; the band being merely an ornamental introduction.”

Calling pattern-welded steel “Damascus” continued up until the time of Moran [8][9], as can be seen in the 1962 book Tool Steels [8]:

“Damascus steel is said also to have been made by melting but differed from the Wootz steels in that thin strips of steel were alternated with thin strips of soft iron and the whole was welded, twisted and wrought together, resulting in a characteristic appearance. Damascus steels take their name from the city in Syria where they were made, and they became familiar to the Western World through the crusaders. Damascus steels were later copied and manufactured at Toledo, Spain, and in time these Toledo steels became as famed as their parent.”

Gun barrels of pattern-welded steel were sold under the name Damascus steel well into the 20th century [9][10], such as in Belgium in this video taken around 1924:

The pattern-welded steel was even called “pattern-welded steel” to differentiate it from crucible Damascus prior to Moran’s production of pattern-welded steel [11]. Therefore the names “pattern-welded steel” or “Damascus steel” both existed prior to Moran making the material.

Myth: Bill Moran reintroduced the lost pattern welded steel

As you may be getting a feel for based on the quotes given above, there is a long history of “rediscovering” how to produce both wootz and pattern-welded steel. Bill Moran was the next in a long line of people who attempted to do so. There were several published papers on the production of pattern-welded steel within a decade or so of when Moran began his attempts to produce it [11][12][13], and of course the process still existed in Japanese swords. I have even found a claim that Damascus gun barrels were being produced again in England in 1964 [14]. So rather than being the first person who managed to replicate a “lost” process, Moran was the person who popularized it among the custom knife community and brought it to the forefront at that time.

Update 8/27/2018: Manfred Sachse began making pattern-welded damascus before Moran in the late 1960’s. His book Damascus Steel: Myth, History, Technology, Applications also has some images of early 20th century damascus steel. 

Myth: Wootz steel was named “Damascus steel” by Europeans

The term “Damascus steel” was used in Islamic texts no later than 1232 AD and predates the use of the term by Europeans where the earliest known reference to “Damascus steel” was in 1432 [1]. The source of the name Damascus steel is actually unknown, and may come from several sources. Early Islamic writers named swords based on surface appearance, place of production, or the name of the smith. Here are the major potential sources of the term “Damascus steel” [1]:

1. Swords produced in Damascus city were called “Damascene” by Al-Kindi (died 873).
2. The word for water in Arabic is “damas” and Damascus blades are often described as having a “water-pattern” on their surface
3. There was a famous early swordsmith named Damasqui who made swords with crucible steel

The term “wootz” to describe the crucible Damascus steel is thought to be an English corruption of the word ukko or hookoo and the term first appeared in print in 1795 [15].

Myth: Damascus steel has superior sharpness to conventional steel

Swords made from crucible Damascus steel were said to have been able to have cut a silk scarf in one stroke [16] due to their superior qualities. Sharpening experiments on Damascus, 1086, and 52100, found that Damascus steel did not take a sharper edge than the other steels, though 60 Rc steel was found to take a better edge than 40 Rc steel [17].

Myth: Damascus steel cuts longer than conventional steel

Similar to the above myth crucible Damascus steel has also been claimed to have superior edge retention to conventional steel. A CATRA edge retention study [18] was performed with Damascus, 1086, and 52100 at 40 Rc and 60 Rc. You can read about the CATRA test here. At 40 Rc the Damascus steel was found to have a slight advantage over 1086 and 52100 but at 60 Rc the situation was reversed. This is somewhat surprising due to the high carbon content of the Damascus (1.6%). Perhaps the aligned carbides do not cross the cutting edge in an appropriate pattern to provide superior edge retention [18]:

Pattern welded steel has also been claimed to have superior edge retention due to various mechanisms such as the “damascus cutting effect” where it is proposed that one steel type wearing faster than the other leads to micro-serrations [19]. My father and I completed a CATRA study with pattern-welded steel in 2011. We used stainless damascus with a 50:50 mix of AEB-L and 154CM with approximately 200 layers in a ladder pattern to ensure that the two different steels are crossing the edge, and compared that with knives in either AEB-L or 154CM. All three knives had the same design and edge geometry. I have a micrograph of the steel though it isn’t very good due to a non-ideal etchant, but you can see the vast difference in carbide structure between the two steels by comparing the raised particles in the layer marked 154CM vs the layer marked AEB-L:

The large number of carbides in the 154CM makes it much more wear resistant than the AEB-L, and indeed in the CATRA tests 154CM had more than 2x the wear resistance (435 mm vs 190 mm total cardstock cut). When the two steels are combined it behaves as a composite material; the edge retention is essentially right in between the two monosteels, with 330 mm of cardstock cut.

You can see that the depth of cut was lower for the pattern-welded steel and AEB-L from the very first cut. I believe that is due to there being wear during even the first cut rather than because of a difference in edge geometry or sharpening. However, only one test was performed per steel. In summary, no evidence of improved edge retention was found due to using pattern-welded steel.

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[1] Feuerbach, Anna Marie. “Crucible steel in Central Asia: production, use and origins.” PhD diss., University of London, 2002.

[2] Verhoeven, John D. “The mystery of Damascus blades.” Scientific American 284, no. 1 (2001): 74-79.

[3] Verhoeven, J. D., A. H. Pendray, W. E. Dauksch, and S. R. Wagstaff. “Damascus Steel Revisited.” JOM (2018): 1-6.

[4]  Verhoeven, John D., and Howard F. Clark. “Carbon diffusion between the layers in modern pattern-welded Damascus blades.” Materials characterization 41, no. 5 (1998): 183-191.

[5] Verhoeven, John D. “Genuine Damascus steel: a type of banded microstructure in hypereutectoid steels.” steel research 73, no. 8 (2002): 356-365.

[6] Bagnold, T. M. “No. VIII. INDIAN METHOD OF TWISTING IRON FOR GUN-BARRELS AND SWORD-BLADES.” Transactions of the Society, Instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce 43 (1824): 105-108.

[7] Wilkinson, Henry. “Art. XII.—On the Cause of the external Pattern, or Watering of the Damascus Sword-Blades.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 4, no. 7 (1837): 187-193.

[8] Steels, Tool. “Roberts et al.” American Society, 1962.

[9] Panseri, Carlo. “Damascus steel in legend and in reality.” Gladius 4 (1965): 5-66.

[10] Warner, Franklin Brockway. “Manufacture of barrels for shotguns and rifles.” U.S. Patent 1,167,233, issued January 4, 1916.

[11] Maryon, Herbert. “Pattern-welding and Damascening of Sword-blades—Part I Pattern-Welding.” Studies in Conservation 5, no. 1 (1960): 25-37.

[12] Smith, Cyril Stanley. “Decorative etching and the science of metals.” Endeavour 16, no. 64 (1957): 199-208.

[13] Anstee, J. W., L. Biek, and N. P. Allen. “A study in pattern-welding.” Medieval Archaeology 5, no. 1 (1961): 71-93.

[14] http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Time_Line.html

[15] Pearson, George. “XVII. Experiments and observations to investigate the nature of a kind of steel, manufactured at Bombay, and there called Wootz: with remarks on the properties and composition of the different states of iron.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 85 (1795): 322-346.

[16] Bogachev, I. N. “Pavel Petrovich Anosov and the Secret of Damascus Steel.” (1952).

[17] Verhoeven, J.D. “Experiments on Knife Sharpening.” (2004).

[18] Verhoeven, John D., Alfred H. Pendray, and Howard F. Clark. “Wear tests of steel knife blades.” Wear 265, no. 7-8 (2008): 1093-1099.

[19] Goddard, Wayne. “The Wonder of Knifemaking.” (2000).