Originally Posted by
certifiedbodyman
I've read a paper (can't remember the author) on the very subject of Damascus steel and its edge keeping tendencies. From the article, the jest of it was that Dmamscus steel did hold an edge better. This was due to the production of the metal and the carbon in it taking the form of carbon nanotubes that were filled with a slightly harder material and the overall structure was called "cementite" if my memory serves. Basically, the Indians (of the country India) who were making the steel for import to Damscus inadvertently found a way (unknown to them) to forge the steel that had something close to the modern day kevlar in it but it was a tube filled with a compound almost like plaster that came from the wood itself that was usued for the carbon. I wish I had the article but alas, I do not.