6 DAMASCUS BLADES 



very flexible, and boro a vory keen edge, it could not with safety bo bent to moro 

 than 45 from the straight shape, and it was not nearly so sharp as a rax. 

 wielded by a skilful hand it would cut through a thick roll of sail-cloth without any 

 apparent difficulty ; a feat which could not bo performed with an ordinary sword, nor, 

 it should be observed, by the sabre itsolF in ;m ordinary hand, though the swordsman 

 who tried it could, it appears, do nearly the same thing witli a good En: 

 blade.' 



^Emerson, in his letters from the JEgcan, says : ' I have seen some blades (sci- 

 mitars) which wore valued at 200 or 300 dollars ; many are said to bo worth triple that 

 sum, and all retain the name of Damascus, though it is by no means likely that thoy 

 have been manufactured there. The twisting and interwisting of the fibres of tho 

 metal are considered as the tests of excellence, but I have never seen any possessed 

 of the perfume said to be incorporated with the steel in the real Damascus 

 blade.' 



Steel helmets and cuirasses were formed of cast and damascened steel, intermixed 

 with pure iron, a mixture supposed to combine toughness and hardness in the greatest 

 possible degree. 



The production and use of damask steel received much attention from the lato 

 General Anossoff, of tho Corps of Engineers of the Imperial Russian army, and 

 Master of the Fabric of Arms at Zlatoust, in Siberia. His researches and successful 

 practice have become matters of history. 



At different periods these works at Zlatoust havo been visited, by two English 

 travellers, Major Abbott of the Bengal Artillery, and Mr. Atkinson, who have 

 recorded the results of observation, experiment, and conversational intercourse, and 

 they state severally their conviction that the damask steel produced by Anossoff 

 rivalled in beauty and excellence any works they had ever seen in other lands. They 

 accord to Anossoff the honour of being the reviver of the art of making damask steel 

 in Europe, while they declare tho Russian natural damask steel is not approached by 

 tho fabrics of any Eastern nation now existing. These works were also visited by the 

 late Sir R. I. Murchison. 



The Siberian swords and daggers were compared and tried with the choicest spo- 

 cimene, and found equal to the blades of Damascus and the sabres of Khorassan ; 

 and while these valued articles might have been selected from numbers manufactured 

 by chances of skill and material, Anossoff united chemical analyses of ores and steel, 

 and records of observations on progressive stages, to give a true history of tho means 

 to explain and insure success. 



Major Abbott gives the following description of the damask as produced at Zlatoust. 

 He defines it to be a modification of cast steel, by which it is impressed with a peculiar 

 character in its crystallisation, which character betrays itself when the corrosion of 

 acids, by acting moro violently between the interstices of the structure than elsewhere, 

 traces out the arrangement of tho crystals. This property is communicated to the 

 damask of Zlatoust by a process tending to perfect tho quality of tho steel, and to 

 impress upon tho cast steel the elastic properties of a softer material. The general 

 fault of European blades is, that being forged of shear steel for the sake of elasticity, 

 they are scarcely susceptible of the keen edge which cast steel will assume. The 

 genius of Anossoff has triumphed over this objection, not by hardening tho soft steel, 

 but by giving elasticity to tho hard ; the result has been tho production of weapons 

 combining, in the very highest degree, elasticity with keenness of edge. Wo believe 

 that the manufacture of damask steel is no longer carried on at Zlatoust. 



Colonel Anossoff has published, in Russia, a treatise on tho art of damasking steel. 

 The following remarks are extracted and condensed from it : 



' In Russia, we understand, by damask, a mctul harder, and supplying a material 

 for arms of a keener edge, than ordinary steel. All the researches of chemists have, 

 until now, failed in discovering any essential difference between tho damask and 

 ordinary steel, which, nevertheless, proves only that tho analysis has been im; 

 and that it is only want of means that prevents success. Although the ch'-mists ot 

 tho present day presume that tho natural damask is the effivt, of crystallisation, pro- 

 duced by retarded cooling of tho heated metal, yet, not having l-ccn able to \ 

 a damask by this means eq^ual to tho ancient work of Asia, they cannot establish 

 this ground. If crystallisation generally is but tho result of tho stria-tun: f bodies 

 under certain physical conditions, tho question results, "Why in tins damask is it not 

 the result of a similar cause ; and since common stx:-cl acquires no visiMo damask by 

 gradual refrigeration, is not this a convincing proof that tin- composition of cL 

 differs from that of ordinary steel ? Thus, on tho on hand, tin- imperfection of our 

 chemical knowledge, and on the other, tho difficulty of fabricating the damask, 

 Europeans still in uncertainty as to its merits. 



1 All steel which exhibits a surface figured with dark lines is called damask. In 



