Tuesday Oct 9 at 8pm PBS will air a Nova episode titled "Secrets of the Samurai Sword" in which the trailer hints at using modern technology to unravel the mystery of the steel......there is enough similarities between samurai sword steel and damascus, that surely we will all learn something applicable.

here is the trailer link http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/preview/w_3412_220.html

here is the PBS link
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/samurai/

There should be some new understanding as the result of bringing the latest scientific testing to bear...