Wootz steel

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Crucible steels like wootz steel and Damascus steel exhibit unique banding patterns because of the intermixed ferrite and cementite alloys in the steel.

Wootz steel, also known as Seric steel, is a

southern India in the mid-1st millennium BC and exported globally.[1]

History

Wootz steel originated in the mid-1st millennium BCE in India, in present-day

200 BCE Tamil trade guild in Tissamaharama, in the South East of Sri Lanka, brought with them some of the oldest iron and steel artifacts and production processes to the island from the classical period.[12][13][14][15]

Trade between India and Sri Lanka through the

Golconda region of Telangana clearly being the nodal center for the export of wootz steel to West Asia.[16]

Another sign of its reputation is seen in a Persian phrase – to give an "Indian answer", meaning "a cut with an Indian sword".[8] Wootz steel was widely exported and traded throughout ancient Europe and the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East.[8]

Detail of 17th–18th C. Indian tulwar/shamshir

Development of modern metallurgy

From the 17th century onwards, several European travelers observed the steel manufacturing in South India, at

Kannada[18][19] and Telugu, and urukku in Malayalam. When Benjamin Heyne inspected the Indian steel in Ceded Districts and other Kannada-speaking areas, he was informed that the steel was ucha kabbina ("superior iron"), also known as ukku tundu in Mysore.[20][21]

Legends of wootz steel and Damascus swords aroused the curiosity of the European scientific community from the 17th to the 19th century. The use of high-carbon alloys was little known in Europe[22] previously and thus the research into wootz steel played an important role in the development of modern English, French and Russian metallurgy.[23]

In 1790, samples of wootz steel were received by Sir Joseph Banks, president of the British Royal Society, sent by Helenus Scott. These samples were subjected to scientific examination and analysis by several experts.[24][25][26]

Specimens of daggers and other weapons were sent by the Rajas of India to

the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and 1862 International Exhibition. Though the arms of the swords were beautifully decorated and jeweled, they were most highly prized for the quality of their steel. The swords of the Sikhs were said to bear bending and crumpling, and yet be fine and sharp.[8]

Characteristics

Wootz is characterized by a pattern caused by bands of clustered Fe
3C particles made by melting of low levels of carbide-forming elements.[27] Wootz contains greater carbonaceous matter than common qualities of cast steel.[citation needed]

The distinct patterns of Wootz steel that can be made through forging are wave, ladder, and rose patterns with finely spaced bands. However, with hammering, dyeing, and etching further customized patterns were made.[28]

The presence of

nanowires and carbon nanotubes has been identified by Peter Pepler of TU Dresden in the microstructure of wootz steel.[29] There is a possibility of an abundance of ultrahard metallic carbides in the steel matrix precipitating out in bands.Wootz swords were renowned for their sharpness and toughness
.

Composition

T. H. Henry analyzed and recorded the composition of wootz steel samples provided by the Royal School of Mines. Recording:

Wootz steel was analyzed by Michael Faraday and recorded to contain 0.01-0.07% aluminium. Faraday, Messrs (et al.), and Stodart hypothesized that aluminium was needed in the steel and was important in forming the excellent properties of wootz steel. However T. H. Henry deduced that presence of aluminium in the Wootz used by these studies was due to slag, forming as silicates. Percy later reiterated that the quality of wootz steel does not depend on the presence of aluminium.[30]

Reproduction research

Wootz steel has been reproduced and studied in depth by the Royal School of Mines.[31] Dr. Pearson was the first to chemically examine wootz in 1795 and he published his contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[32]

Russian metallurgist Pavel Petrovich Anosov (see Bulat steel) was almost able to reproduce ancient Wootz steel with nearly all of its properties and the steel he created was very similar to traditional Wootz. He documented four different methods of producing Wootz steel that exhibited traditional patterns. He died before he could fully document and publish his research. Oleg Sherby and Jeff Wadsworth and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have all done research, attempting to create steels with characteristics similar to Wootz, but without success. J.D Verhoeven and Alfred Pendray reconstructed methods of production, proved the role of impurities of ore in the pattern creation, and reproduced Wootz steel with patterns microscopically and visually identical to one of the ancient blade patterns. Reibold et al.'s analyses spoke of the presence of carbon nanotubes enclosing nanowires of cementite, with the trace elements/impurities of vanadium, molybdenum, chromium etc. contributing to their creation, in cycles of heating/cooling/forging. This resulted in a hard high carbon steel that remained malleable[33]

There are smiths who are now consistently producing Wootz steel blades visually identical to the old patterns.[34] Steel manufactured in Kutch particularly enjoyed a widespread reputation, similar to those manufactured at Glasgow and Sheffield.[8]

Wootz was made over nearly a 2,000-year period (the oldest sword samples date to around 200 CE) and the methods of production of ingots, the ingredients, and the methods of forging varied from one area to the next. Some Wootz blades displayed a pattern, while some did not. Heat treating was quite different from forging, and there were many different patterns that were created by the various smiths who spanned from China to Scandinavia.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1111/arcm.12503
    .
  2. doi:10.5334/pia.60
    .
  3. S2CID 247355036
    .
  4. ^ Coghlan, Herbert Henery (1977). Notes on prehistoric and early iron in the Old World (2nd ed.). Pitt Rivers Museum. pp. 99–100.
  5. Indian Journal of History of Science. 34 (4). Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 24 July 2015.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-85115-716-0
    .
  7. ^ Burton, Sir Richard Francis (1884). The Book of the Sword. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 111.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-543-92943-3
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-52107-060-7
    .
  10. ^ Lox, William (2009). BINTIE: THE WOOTZ STEEL IN ANCIENT CHINA from Indian Journal of History of Science, 44.3. p. 369 to 388.https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_a/articles/wootz_in_china.pdf
  11. S2CID 247355036
    .
  12. ^ Hobbies (April 1963) Vol. 68, No.5, p.45, Chicago: Lightner Publishing Company.
  13. ^ Mahathevan, Iravatham (24 June 2010). "An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil". The Hindu. The Hindu Group. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  14. ^ Ragupathy, P. (28 June 2010). "Tissamaharama potsherd evidences ordinary early Tamils among population". Tamilnet. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  15. ^ "Dinithi" (PDF). Sri Lanka Archaeology. 1 (4). February 2012.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^
    OCLC 82439861
    .
  17. ISBN 978-81-86246-19-1
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0-7619-9670-5
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0-7503-0571-6
    .
  20. ^ Balfour, Edward (1885). The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial Industrial, and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures. Bernard Quaritch. p. 1092.
  21. ^ Jeans, James Stephen (1880). Steel: Its History, Manufacture, Properties and Uses. E. & F.N. Spon. p. 294.
  22. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.02.002
    .
  23. ISBN 978-1-258-47336-5
    .
  24. JSTOR 106960
    .
  25. S2CID 115267901
    .
  26. JSTOR 91231
    .
  27. ^ Verhoeven, Pendray & Dauksch 1998
  28. ISBN 978-3-540-20963-8
    .
  29. S2CID 136774602
    .
  30. ^ Percy, John (1864). Metallurgy: The Art of Extracting Metals from Their Ores, and Adapting Them to Various Purposes of Manufacture. J. Murray. p. 183.
  31. ^ Ure, Andrew (1821). A Dictionary of Chemistry: On the Basis of Mr. Nicholson's, in which the Principles of the Science are Investigated Anew and Its Applications to the Phenomena of Nature, Medicine, Mineralogy, Agriculture, and Manufactures Detailed. Robert Desilver. p. 45.
  32. ^ Neogi, Panchanan (1914). Iron in ancient India. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
  33. ISBN 978-3-540-88200-8
    .
  34. doi:10.1016/S0924-0136(01)00794-4
    .

Further reading

External links
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