DAMASCUS BLADES 5 



method of torsion, which is more generally employed at present, consists in forming 

 a bundle of rods or slips of steel, which are welded together into a well-wrought bar, 

 twisted several times round its axis. It is repeatedly forged, and twisted alternately ; 

 after which it is slit in the line of its axis, and the two halves are welded with their 

 outsides in contact ; by which means their faces will exhibit very various configura- 

 tions. 3. The mosaic method consists in preparing a bar, as by the torsion plan, and 

 cutting this bar into short pieces of nearly equal length, with which a faggot is formed 

 and welded together ; taking care to preserve the sections of each piece at the surface 

 of the blade. In this way, all the variety of the design is displayed, corresponding to 

 each fragment of the cut bar. 



The blades of Clouet, independently of their excellent quality, their flexibility, and 

 extreme elasticity, have this advantage over the oriental blades, that they exhibit in 

 the very substance of the metal, designs, letters, inscriptions, and, generally speaking, 

 all kinds of figures which had been delineated beforehand. 



Notwithstanding these successful results of Clouet, it was pretty clear that the 

 watered designs of the true Damascus scimitar were essentially different. M. Breant 

 has attempted a solution of this problem. He supposes that the substance of the 

 oriental blades is a cast steel more highly charged with carbon than our European 

 steel, and in which, by means of a cooling suitably conducted, a crystallisation takes 

 place of two distinct combinations of carbon and iron. This separation is, he thinks, 

 the essential condition ; for if the melted steel be suddenly cooled in a small crucible 

 or ingot, there is no damascene appearance. 



If an excess of carbon be mixed with iron, the whole of the metal will be converted 

 into steel ; and the residuary carbon will combine in a new proportion with a portion 

 of the steel so formed. There will be two distinct compounds ; namely, pure steel, 

 and carburetted steel or cast iron. These at first being imperfectly mixed, will tend 

 to separate if while still fluid they be left in a state of repose ; and form a crystalli- 

 sation in which the particles of the two compounds will place themselves in the cru- 

 cible in an order determined by their affinity and density conjoined. If a blade forged 

 out of steel so prepared be immersed in acidulous water, it will display a very distinct 

 Damascus appearance ; the portions of pure steel becoming black, and those of 

 carburetted steel remaining white, because the acids with difficulty disengage its 

 carbon. The slower such a compound is cooled, the larger the Damascus veins will be. 

 Tavernier relates that the steel crucible ingots, like those of wootz, for making the 

 true oriental Damascus, come from Golconda, that they are the size of a halfpenny 

 roll, and when cut in two, form two swords. 



Steel combined with manganese displays the Damascus appearance very strongly. 



A mixture of 100 parts of soft iron and 2 of lamp-black melts as readily as ordinary 

 steel. Several of the best blades which M. Breant presented to the Societe d'Encour- 

 agement are the product of this combination. This is an easy way of making cast 

 steel without previous cementation of the iron. 100 parts of filings of very grey cast 

 iron, and 100 parts of like filings previously oxidised, produced, by their fusion to- 

 gether, a beautiful damascene steel, fit for forging into white arms, sabres, swords, &c. 

 This compound is remarkable for its elasticity, an essential quality, not possessed by 

 the old Indian steel. The greater the proportion of the oxidised cast iron the 

 tougher is the steel. Care should be taken to stir the materials during their fusion, 

 before they are allowed to cool ; otherwise they will not afford a homogeneous damask. 

 If the steel contains much carbon it is difficult to forge, and cannot be drawn out ex- 

 cept within a narrow range of temperature. When heated to a red-white it crumbles 

 under the hammer ; at a cherry -red it becomes hard and brittle ; and as it progres- 

 sively cools it becomes still more unmalleable. It resembles completely Indian steel, 

 which European blacksmiths cannot forge, because they are ignorant of the suitable 

 temperature for working it. M. Bryant, by studying this point, succeeded in forging 

 fine blades. 



Experience has proved that the orbicular veins, called by the workmen knots or 

 thorns (ronces), which are seen upon the finest Eastern scimitars, are the result of the 

 manner of forging them, as well as the method of twisting the Damascus bars. If 

 these be drawn in length, the veins will be longitudinal ; if they be spread equally in 

 all directions, the stuff will have a crystalline aspect ; if they be made wavy in 

 the two directions, undulated veins will be produced like those in the oriental 

 Damascus. 



The characteristics ascribed to the real Damascus blades are extraordinary keenness 

 of edge, great flexibility of substance, a singular grain of fleckiness always observable 

 on the surface, and a peculiar musky odour given out by any friction of the blade, 

 either by bending or otherwise. The author of ' Manufactures in Metals' remarks : 



_ ' A gentleman who purchased one of these blades in the East Indies for a thousand 

 piastres, remarked to the writer of this volume that, although the instrument was 



