This guide is aimed at clearing up some of the confusion over the distinction between wootz (sometimes referred to as bulat) and damascus steels. There is a great deal of misinformation and mythology surrounding the subject, and while I do not have all the answers, I will try to make things clearer for those looking to buy items made from these materials. I will also attempt to give folks some insight into the methods used to create the two distinct types of steel, and some of the characteristics of both. This is not intended as a complete explanation, but instead as an overview.

To begin, what is now commonly referred to as "damascus steel", would more properly be called "pattern-welded steel". This is because the term "damascus steel" has been used over the years to describe pattern-welded steel, wootz, and practically anything else that showed a pattern on its surface. The terms "watered steel" and "damascened" steel have also been tossed around pretty liberally and are therefore largely useless when it comes down to categorizing a specific item. 

Pattern-welded steel could most simply be defined as any steel that has been made from two or more pieces forge-welded together and manipulated for the purpose of bringing out a visible pattern. Steels of different alloy content, carbon content, or crystalline structure actually look different, particularly if treated with the appropriate acid or oxidizer. Many Viking blades were pattern-welded, and the layers of steel manipulated mostly through twisting to bring out beautiful patterns. The same processes that created the visible patterns also strengthened the blades, and for centuries swords that showed visible patterning were considered stronger. This association persisted long past the time when advances in metallurgy had made the patterning moot, which resulted in numerous examples of blades that had been artificially carved or etched to mimic the appearance. Pattern-welding has been used periodically in Europe ever since, although more for its aesthetic than utilitarian aspects. In modern times pattern-welding has seen a resurgence among custom knifemakers, swordsmiths, and even jewelers as a method for beautifying their wares. It is important to remember that pattern-welded items have no inherent advantage over their plain steel kin except in appearance. This is particularly true now that the market is being flooded with poor quality "damascus steel" from India and Pakistan. Traditional Japanese katanas were made through the same process as pattern-welded blades, but the lamination process is not for the purpose of creating a pattern, but instead for the purpose of refining the steel. These often had thousands of layers, whereas the Viking blades were typically had fewer than twenty...the edge often had more, but the pattern here was not visible. Most of the amazing qualities associated with katanas have little to do with the laminations, but are instead tied to the exacting heat-treating process that the Japanese smiths use. To make a long story short, pattern-welded steel, also known as damascus steel, is made through the forge-welding of multiple pieces of steel into a single billet and then manipulated to bring out a visible pattern.

Wootz is a creature of a totally different nature. Superficially it looks similar to pattern-welded steel, since it shows a visible pattern on the surface. As I said before, the pattern in pattern-welded steel comes from the visible differences between the steels involved. In the case of wootz, the pattern is caused by the segregation of the material into steel and carbides. The carbides appear silvery, while the steel appears black. The earliest date that I have seen for wootz is 200 AD in northern India, but there is evidence pointing to even earlier usage. It is also clear that wootz and related materials were produced throughout much of central Asia, not just in India as some seem to think. There is currently no definitive evidence pointing to one region or another as the original source. Wootz was produced in India and other areas up until the 19th century, at which point the secrets of making it were lost. At that point, no European smiths had successfully created wootz on their own, and to my knowledge, none had even managed to forge out purchased ingots. This is for a very simple reason: wootz is like no steel used or created elsewhere in the world, and its forging parameters were far different than those of the steels used by European smiths. Where normal steels react well to forging at 1800-2200F (orange to bright yellow color) and generally react poorly to forging at 1500-1650 (red to dull orange), wootz would crumble if forged at the higher temperatures and could only be forged effectively in the lower range. This is largely the result of vastly different carbon contents between the two materials. Where most sword and knife steels around the world (this is still true today) had 0.6-0.8% carbon by weight, wootz typically had 1.2-1.8% carbon by weight. The higher the carbon content, the lower the melting temperature and the therefore the cooler the material must be forged. This extremely high carbon content coupled with trace amounts of carbide forming elements such as vanadium were the source of wootz's particular physical properties as well as its distinctive surface pattern. In essence, the extra carbon is used to create carbides, and the carbides are what make wootz different. As an example, "normal" steels are heated to non-magnetic (roughly 1500F depending on the steel) and quenched in water or more typically oil to harden them. This hardened steel is as hard and as brittle as glass, so it is reheated slightly to temper the blade. This softens the steel slightly, reducing its edge-holding ability, but making it tougher and more shock resistant. Wootz on the other hand, was traditionally heated to a dull red, then cooled in a fast-moving stream of air. This air-quenching did not harden the blade so much as make it "less soft" than it would have been otherwise. Where blades made from typical steels rely on their hardness for their edge-holding and cutting abilities, in wootz these are almost entirely reliant on the carbides. Overall, wootz is a softer and therefore much tougher material, but the carbides are far harder than any steel. This does not mean that wootz is superior, but simply that it is very different. It is my feeling that a blade made for slicing relatively soft materials such as cloth and flesh would be best made from wootz, but a blade for chopping of hard materials such as armor would be better made from normal steel. It is interesting to note here that in Europe, where steel armor was common, normal steel is what was used to make blades. In Central Asia, where most armor consisted of layers of cloth or leather with some chain mail or steel plates and blades were made to slice through these layers, wootz was considered to be the superior blade material. Another note on this is that some of the very few modern bladesmiths who have successfully created wootz and forged it into blades have taken to hardening and tempering the edges of their wootz knives. I have never had an opportunity to test such blades, and all of the blades that I have made from wootz have been traditionally heat-treated, but this hardening process should create essentially normal knife steel at the edge of the blade but with the added benefit of the carbide bands...assuming that the heat-treater is very careful about temperature control.

Wootz also differs from normal steel in its manufacture..or at least it used to. Typically wootz was produced by sealing iron and/or iron ore along with various other ingredients within a fireclay crucible, then firing the crucible in a forge or furnace until the contents became fully molten. A slow cooling process allowed the material to segregate, not into layers, but instead along the boundaries of crystalline dendrites. The most typical example of dendrite formation are the frost crystals that form on your window, or the ice crystals on a newly frozen pond. The key to this cooling and segregation is that vanadium or some other strong carbide forming element must be present, and must be concentrated in the areas between the dendrites as they form. This segregation of carbide formers is what creates the visible "layering" pattern that is visible in the finished blade. The existence of these strong carbide formers is also what makes wootz forgeable at all, since it is the formation of carbides early in the forging process which lowers the carbon content in the rest of the material sufficiently that it can be worked without cracking. Up until the 1700's, steel in the rest of the world was essentially made by carburizing wrought iron. It was during the 1700's that the European version of the crucible process was developed in Sheffield, England, which basically involved taking the carburized wrought iron and melting it within a crucible to create a higher quality steel. This still lacked the extremely high carbon content of wootz so, even if vanadium was present within the steel, it could never develop the carbides and pattern that wootz did. On the other hand, the crucible steels were vastly superior to the carburized materials that they eventually replaced, and modern steel metallurgy is largely based on this development. Since the crucible steel concept was based largely on the methods used to create wootz, we can essentially say that the beginnings of modern metallurgy were in central Asia some 1800 years ago. Interestingly, around the same time that the crucible process was coming into use in Europe, the making of wootz in India and elsewhere was swiftly declining. The prevailing theory now is that the ores that had been used for so many centuries had trace amounts of vanadium in them, and when the mines that supplied this iron ore was exhausted, the ore that replaced had no vanadium. With no vandium in the ore, there were no carbides or they were more difficult to form and retain, and with no carbides the material was harder to work and had no pattern. It would also have lacked the toughness of wootz, being in essence simply a very high carbon steel. I can only imagine how frustrating this must have been for the smiths of the time, who knew nothing about alloying elements or carbides. Out of the blue, the processes that they had been using successfully for generations failed to produce the material that they had in the past.

In between the time of the disappearance of wootz and modern times, several different people have attempted to recreate the process and material with some success. The most notable of these was Anosov of Russia who created a material that he called "bulat". From remaining samples it is clear that he did produce wootz, but unfortunately his process was lost as well. Today, the secrets of wootz have been essentially unlocked, with folks like Pendray and Verhoeven at the forefront of research in the field. There are now skilled smiths scattered around the world creating wootz using their own particular formulas and techniques, each producing a slightly different version of this ancient material. One word of caution, though. Do not believe any hype that claims that wootz is superior to either pattern-welded steels or standard steels. Wootz is possibly better for some things, but it is just as possibly worse for other things. Let's simply say that it is not better, just different.

As I said earlier, this is not intended as the final or full answer to the wootz/damascus steel question, but more as a quick overview. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to write up some additional guides that are a bit more in depth on various aspects of wootz and pattern-welded steels and their use in weapons manufacture. In the meantime, if you have any questions feel free to contact me through my eBay account, Fallinghammerproductions . If you are looking to bid on an item on eBay and are unsure whether or not it is wootz or pattern-welded steel, I will also do my best to help out there as well. I don't guarantee that I will be able to give a definitive answer in every case, but I have a very good eye for picking out which is which having made both myself. If you have any questions or comments about this guide, please feel free to contact me for those as well.