Great stuff guys.
M. Sache in "Damascus Steel, Myth, History, Technology Applications" states that BOTH pattern-welded Damascus AND wootz Damascus blades were first produced around 500 A.D.
In terms of shotgun barrels, it's going to be very important that we don't mix blade production techniques (folding laminates) with damascus barrel techniques (twisting laminates and welding the ribband edges.)

per http://www.memagazine.org/may07/features/straight/straight.html
the English were first introduced to the 'hand cannon' in 1429 at the siege of Orleans.

I'm going to go ahead and re-post some links for infro on Wootz steel, the first by a damascus expert at Iowa State:
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9809/Verhoeven-9809.html
Looks like it's vanadium and molybdenum that cause the damascene appearance of Wootz
http://met.iisc.ernet.in/~rangu/text.pdf
http://www.brisa.fi/wootz3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel

Last edited by revdocdrew; 10/05/07 11:03 PM.
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