Thread: Wootz

Originally Posted by gugi

That was interesting video, glad that they made it and published it.

As far as razors (and knives) made from his steel I think he has been pretty selective to whom he has sold it.
I believe that a decade ago one of our members, Joe Chandler, was able to obtain a small amount and made 3 razors out of it. Later Bruno was able to also obtain a small amount and I think I saw somewhere that he used it in may be a razor or two.

Unfortunately, Al Pendray has now passed away but there are still a number of people who make wootz and that's where the current supplies come from. May be there is still a piece of Pendray-made wootz here and there though I doubt it's a meaningful amount.

I made a fixed handle one in Pendray wootz, as well as one with a damascus body and a Pendray wootz edge. Those are Michael's.
I have 3d one in progress.

And I have 3 pieces left that came from Alfred.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Would be good to see the cosmetic difference between Indian , Persian & Damascus Wootz, if any.

I have a couple of wootz razors in progress with wootz from a Polish friend, that I can provide pictures of to compare side by side.
I also have a good bar from Ric Furrer that I still need to make some razors out of.

I can already compare with the wootz I get from Evrahim baran, but that has a lot of manganese so the etching pattern is very different and doesn't really look similar to Pendray's wootz.

Thanks for sharing.

That would be good Bruno.
I wondered if all wootz had to have the water pattern but see a few current makers have very straight tight patterns eg. Jeremy Spake & there is also Heimo Roselli with his version that comes from the Karhula foundry.

Fascinating video, one Mans persistence finally paid off he discovered after many years of trial and error the recipe to make Wootz steel.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

That would be good Bruno.
I wondered if all wootz had to have the water pattern but see a few current makers have very straight tight patterns eg. Jeremy Spake & there is also Heimo Roselli with his version that comes from the Karhula foundry.

The way it is forged out influences the pattern. If someone uses power tools, that will leave a much straighter pattern. Especially if the hammer or press has flat dies instead of drawing dies. And of course, if other alloys are in there, that changes things as well. One of the makers I talked with told me that just because it is dendritic and comes out of a crucible doesn't mean it is wootz.

Very interesting. I wonder what defines wootz & sets it apart ? Are modern dendritic steels an improvement in some way?
I guess the job the knife is made for may be a deciding factor ?
Fascinating stuff.

Originally Posted by Bruno

The way it is forged out influences the pattern. If someone uses power tools, that will leave a much straighter pattern. Especially if the hammer or press has flat dies instead of drawing dies. And of course, if other alloys are in there, that changes things as well. One of the makers I talked with told me that just because it is dendritic and comes out of a crucible doesn't mean it is wootz.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Very interesting. I wonder what defines wootz & sets it apart ? Are modern dendritic steels an improvement in some way?
I guess the job the knife is made for may be a deciding factor ?
Fascinating stuff.

I think realistically, if the alloys and the resulting pattern fall within the bell curve of what we have in terms of historic artefacts, it's wootz.

But for example, if people add manganese to change the heat treatment... or if people add chromium to make it stainless... I guess we can argue. I mean it is dendritic steel and has a dendritic pattern. It's a matter of how you define it.