Damascus article in Nature

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0611...061113-11.html

Great article, MP. Thanks for sharing!

I believe Prof Verhoeven has duplicated Damascus steel on a microscopic level. A quick search will uncover his article. Of course he cheated a little bit because he used modern methods.

BTW, he's the same one that wrote that great article on sharpening.

Here's an interesting read or two in a similar vein:

http://home.att.net/~moltenmuse/index.htm

http://damascus.free.fr/f_damas/f_hist/perret.htm

James.

This is what prof. Verhoeven has to say about Damascus steel: http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM...even-9809.html

Pretty interesting is that the art of making Damascus steel died out when the mines in India that contained the ores with the necessary impurities became depleted.

BTW I found this article using Wikepedia.