184/.] Process of working the Damascus Blade of Goojrat. 417 



Process of working the Damascus Blade of Goojrat ; by Capt. James 

 Abbott, Boundary Commissioner, Lahore. 



In the Appendix to my narrative of a journey to Khiva, &c. I pub- 

 lished a paper upon the fabric of the Damascus blade, written by my 

 friend Colonel Anosoff, of the Engineers, master of the celebrated Fa- 

 bric of ilrms at Zlataoost in Siberia, accompanied by such remarks 

 as my own experience suggested. But having been the guest of that 

 gentleman I did not conceive myself at liberty to publish without his 

 express permission, which I had no means of obtaining, the process by 

 which cast steel is rendered sufficiently elastic for sword blades. And 

 not having witnessed the forging of a blade, I was ignorant of the fur- 

 ther precautions necessary to bring out the grain of the Damask. 



I have now just returned from Jullalpoor in Goojrat, (the Goojrat of 

 the Punjaub) and am prepared to describe the whole process adopted 

 there, in the fabric of sword blades, celebrated throughout India. 



The blade of Goojrat is of two kinds, the simple and the mixed 

 damask. 



The simple damask is precisely similar to the damask of Isfahaun in 

 Persia. Its Damascene is a granulation covering the entire surface of 

 the blade, and often disposed in lateral processes ; as if the blade had 

 been woven throughout of infinitely fine wires. At other times, this 

 granulation is streaky like a skein of floss silk that has been rumpled 

 into innumerable wrinkles too minute to be followed by the eye. 



At other times it has the grain observed in timber, when intersected 

 obliquely. 



All these different kinds, are the same substance, submitted to the 

 same process. At least, the general treatment and intention are the 

 same, and the differences arise from accident, not design, 



The substance is a small cake of cast steel weighing about 2 lbs. and 

 exhibiting manifest symptoms of the fluid condition in which it ac- 

 quired its plano-convex shape. That is, the lower or convex surface, 

 bears the impression of the coarse gravelly mould into which it was 

 poured. And the upper or flat surface, has those concentric wrinkles 

 and radiations, which all metals take in crystallizing after fusion. 

 This cast steel (fowlahd) is purchased at Umritsur in the small cakes 

 above noted. The natives know not its origin, but only that it 



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