Subject: Japanese and Wootz? Huh???!

From: [email-masked] (JHrisoulas)
Date: 17 Jun 1996 18:04:22 -0400

As far as I can tell, the Japanese use and manufacture of tahama gane iron
and the tradiotnal Indo-Persian wootz manufactruring techniques are not
anywhere close.

Tahama gane results are very similar to the European bloomery iron as the
techniques are very similar, in the fact that the iron ore is not reduced
to full liquidus....This results in a sponge like mass of ferric material
that need to be worked considerably...Very similar to the traditional
wrought iron masses produced in the Western culture until the advent of
the Bessemer process late in the 19th Century..

Wootz, on the other had uses bloom iron, along with various organic and
inorganic carbon souces as a "raw" material and then this is placed into a
crucible, sealed and then brought to full liquidus for a determined
ammount of time and then slowly cooled, resulting the material that is
common known as Wootz (Sorry about the condensed version of this but I
could [maybe I will] write a book on this subject alone)....

There is no similarity between the Japanese, western European and other
cultural techniques of pattern welded materials (what is so commonly
called "Damascus") and the Wootz process.  These materials don't even look
anything like each other.

Having made a considerable ammount of both steels, believe me, they are
very different in terms of manufacture, forging, heat treating and in
visual appearences....  I would suggest that if I were in your position, I
would most certainly check my sources again, I feel that they may be less
than reliable on this....

Dr James P. Hrisoulas
Metallographer, Author, Lecturer....

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 96 08:16:13 PDT

> You seem to know quite alot about wootz, Damascus and Tahama (which I
> haven't heard of before).  Can you share a bit of this knowlege??
> 

Get the good doctor's books, available from many places - centaur forge, 
Lindsey, Norm Larson books.  He has 3:  "The Complete Bladesmith", "The Master 
Bladesmith", and "Pattern Welded Steel".  There is (obviously) some overlap 
between them but all are excellent sources for folks interested in blade 
making and related skills.

Joe