Sword-smiths Of The Islamic Civilization

The Damascus steel, hot forged steel employed in the manufacture of swords by the

medieval Middle Eastern Islamic civilization in the 11th century was central to the creation of the Damascus sword. This sword was legendary, largely due to its purported sharpness and strength said to be capable of cutting through rocks and swords of inferior quality. The Damascus sword is said to have intimidated the European crusaders into the holy lands during the crusades of the 11 th century. Blacksmiths in medieval Europe put on a concerted effort to replicate the Damascus steel by employing the pattern welding technique of sword making which involved alternating iron and steel layers, twisting and folding the metal during the forging process.

Pattern welding was a technique widely used by wordsmiths around the world and was particularly popular with the Vikings of the 11th century, the Celts of the 6th century and the Japanese. In their effort to replicate the Damascus sword, European sword smiths overlaid the blade surface with copper or silver filigree; this was done to mimic the seemingly watery lines of the Damascus sword blade. The one part that proved to be an insurmountable challenge to the European sword smith was the solid core of the Damascus steel sword, the secret to the construction of the Damascus steel sword was lost even to the Islamic blacksmiths in the early 18th century. Many scholars and researchers of medieval art credit the effort by the European to replicate Damascus steel as the birth of modern material science.

The only available information about the Damascus steel sword informs us that it was manufactured from a material called wootz steel. Wootz was the spirit of the blade and consisted of high grade iron ore with origin traced to southern India as early as 300 BC. Wootz was extracted from raw iron ore through an early process smelting process which involved melting the ore in a crucible to extract the iron and burn away impurities, this process also allowed for the addition of essential impurities such as carbon content essential to the durability and strength of the blade.

High carbon content is very essential to the strength of the steel, the challenge was controlling it's content in the in the mixture. Too little carbon presence results to wrought iron which is a bit too soft for sword making, too much carbon and you cast iron which brittle and unsuitable for the purpose of sword making. Mess with the process and you end up with cementite formed plates in the steel, something hopelessly fragile for any purpose.

It's interesting to learn that the Islamic blacksmiths were somehow able to control the carbon presence in the steel and create a version suitable for creation of swords. This ability was unfortunately lost in the 18th century.

It's senseless indeed that metallurgists would loose such vital technology to history. Modern researchers have tried to unravel the mystery surrounding the remarkable strength of the Damascus steel and one of them, Dr. Peter Paufner of Dresden University Sweden and his research team compiled a report showing that they may have a clue of how high carbon steel was made and why it disappeared. That idea as the report says lies in the modern science of material better known as nanotechnology.

That's an interesting finding, hope you've enjoyed reading.

by: Mathieu Courchesne

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