WOW!!! Great wootz links...is that true taht some wootz steel can exeed 20% [Brisa link]? I find that VERY hard to believe...Wiki says 2% not 20%...and I'm shocked to see hyperbole on that wikipedia page and links.
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One of the wiki links has an article about, what used to be called, the DSRT damascus steel reseach team...somewhere in the attic I have a picture of those guys from the 1980's...
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Oh yeah...the one thing not covered on those pages, so perhaps it's not correct, is how damascus steel got it's name. Under the heading "Origin of the Term" it offers only one plausable explanation and cites several others, but doesn't list the long accepted version that the first carbon steel billets or cakes came from merchants who traded out of Damascus Assyria. Worldwide people began to associate those "cakes" with Damascus [the city] despite their true origin on manufacture. Much the same that we call all reciprocating saws "Sawsall" or an adjustable wrech a "Cresent Wrench", no matter who made the saw or wrench... Water pump pliers we call Channelocks.
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Simply stated, the misnomer of damascus spread before the knowledge of true origin.
