If you were on a battlefield, say, 700 years ago, Damascus steel mattered. The super-strong blades were fabled in their age, said to have sliced through the swords of foes and solid rock. Then we forgot how to make it.
Sixth century metalworkers in India and Sri Lanka were the first to begin crafting the incredibly strong material, shocking Europeans with their weaponry that didn’t lose its sharpness and seemed able to cut through anything in its path – as well as gleaming with a dazzling marbled pattern. And underneath it all, visible only now – two and a half centuries later – are amazingly complex carbon nanotubes. Then, abruptly, the weapons started to vanish around 1750. And nobody knows why. More importantly, nobody knows how – the secret behind the nanotech steel’s production was lost to history, and hundreds of years of debate and research still hasn’t settled the matter.
Some scientists believe the steel’s disappearance is due to the loss of raw materials – perhaps Indian ore of special mineral content – that granted the blades their toughness. Other historians argue ‘smiths simply had no idea themselves how they were creating the stuff and instead selected from large batches those blades that demonstrated the properties of Damascus steel. Swords weren’t exactly decisive factors by the time the Damascus blades began to vanish, but who knows what material breakthroughs we might have reached sooner had we not forgotten the steel’s recipe? [TopTenz via Core77]
elijah
September 2, 2010 at 11:26 AM
One word why they disappeared. Guns.
Report PermalinkRaVe-N
September 2, 2010 at 11:40 AM
The steel of the blade in the picture looks just like that made by a guy in Tasmania I saw on a documentary one time… I think he just folded and folded and folded until it had that marbled look and apparently chefs pay him over $500 for a single knife because they’re so sharp…
Report Permalinkzag1024
September 2, 2010 at 1:13 PM
That’s a good guess, because that particular blade IS folded, according to wikipedia, which appears to be the source of the image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel#Pattern-welded_Damascened_steel. An article I read a few years ago, and wikipedia itself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel), said that while the wavy appearance of the blade of damascus steel weapons is very similar to pattern-welded blades, the actual pattern was caused by precipitated carbides and carbon nanostructures on the blade’s edge and surface. This results in a blade that has nanoscopic serrations on it’s edge – which would be very sharp. In combination with a steel of lower hardness than most high-carbon compositions, you have a blade that copes well with impact, keeps its edge, and is incredibly sharp.
Report PermalinkMat
September 2, 2010 at 12:56 PM
The steel your article refers to is Wootz.
Damascus steel is a (relatively) modern equivalent named from where it was first used.
Wootz is different to the pattern you have there.
Report PermalinkKalem
September 2, 2010 at 2:16 PM
Didn’t I read most of this from wikipedia a few years back?
Seriously though, we haven’t had a need for swords ever since guns became viable.
Report PermalinkHa
September 2, 2010 at 5:52 PM
Because I cut my meat up with a gun.
Report PermalinkZac
September 2, 2010 at 9:29 PM
I’d like to see you carve a turkey with a pistol.
Report Permalinkolearymo
September 2, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Goa’Uld.
Report PermalinkAlvaro Ojeda
September 3, 2010 at 10:41 AM
I’ll stick with my crysknife, thanks.
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