By Motoyasu. Edited by WarAngel

Just what exactly is damascus steel? The word conjures up all kinds of connotations ranging from extremely beautiful to almost magical - even indestructable, when fused with diamond dust, supposedly!

In truth, Damascus is just steel. It has no magical properties and is not indestructible, nor is there any "diamond dust" in it (in any case, if you did put diamond in, it would just dissolve into the steel as regular carbon, it would not impart any special properties).

The Damascus of legend was also known as Wootz or Bulat and was a very high carbon crucible steel. Bits of steel and iron and carbon are placed in a ceramic crucible and heated at very high temperatures until it all fused together. The high carbon content (usually above 2% - most steels used have less than 1% carbon) forms a lot of carbides, which precipitate out, forming lines on the surface of the steel. It is these lines of carbides that create the "watering" effect that Damascus is so famous for.

What we call "damascus" today is really just pattern welded steel- smiths just weld together a few hundred layers of hard and soft steel and then etch in acid. The acid attacks the hard and soft steels at different rates resulting in a visible pattern on the steel that resembles the lines of carbides on Wootz. Neither Wootz nor pattern welded steels are anything magical though; the alternating layers of hard and soft impart a bit more flexibility and toughness to the steel than a solid homogeneous steel, and the hard and soft in the edge act much like serrations and aid cutting, but it is still steel and will break if bent too far and cannot perform any fantastic feats of cutting. Its primary use is for its beauty and exotic appearance.

Note that pattern welded steel is not the same as what the Japanese did! The Japanese welded the same steel over and over onto itself to evenly distribute the carbon. The final billet has a virtually homogeneous carbon content and the layers are indistinguishable; the "grain" seen on polished swords is actually due to silica and slag inclusions from the rice straw ash used as a flux for welding, it is not due to carbon differences. To impart toughness to their blades, the Japanese put a softer steel core in their swords and used a clay coating during heat treating to make the edge harder than the back.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Motoyasu - also known as Christopher Lau - is a professional Japanese sword polisher (experienced in both togi and kantei) and is the HSG's technical backbone on Japanese swords and metallurgy. He is also a visitor on SWORD FORUM - our online discussion board.