1847.] Process of working the Damascus Blade of Goojrat. 421 



attributable probably to a better figure in the mass of steel from which 

 it was forged. It is perfectly elastic. The simple damask of Jullala- 

 bad being tempered in oil, has little elasticity, and the makers will 

 not warrant it to undergo any proof. It is liable both to bend without 

 recovery and to snap short on concussion. The same is observable of 

 the damask of Khorussaun, constructed by a similar process. The 

 cast steel when tempered in water becomes too brittle for sword blades, 

 and the elasticity given by oil is not greater than that which brass 

 possesses. 



A very elegant elastic blade which I purchased in Siberia, and thought 

 cheap at 20 guineas, exhibits a damask of oval concentric rings, so regu- 

 lar and beautiful that I would not believe it to be real damask, until a 

 portion of the blade had been burnished and the acid applied in my 

 presence, when the re-appearance of the Damascene, placed the matter 

 beyond doubt. I have seen a similar though less beautiful Damascene 

 upon daggers forged at Isfahaun. It is difficult to imagine this to be 

 the mere exhibition of crystallization. 



The simple damask of Jullalabad is wrought into three figures. 

 The very narrow, rather thick, much curved Khorussauni sabre — whose 

 section is an abrupt wedge, unwieldy in the grasp and as unfit for of- 

 fence as for defence. 



The broader, much curved, plain or fluted blade of Damascus, with 

 a double-edged point, which its curvature nullifies. And a long 

 straight single or double-edged blade, broad, thin and fluted, wider 

 near the point than at the hilt : always set in a basket hilt, with a 

 pommel projecting three inches to protect the sword-arm and much used 

 by gladiators who exhibit at the Mohurrum. All are forged in the 

 same manner from the same material, yet each has its own separate 

 Damascene, owing to the greater diffusion of the grain of crystallization 

 in one kind than in the other. In the very narrow blade it is more 

 streaky — in the broad blade it more resembles the most delicate of the 

 streaks upon watered ribbands. The darkening of the blade toward 

 the edge, observable in Khorussauni sabres, is not visible in these — I 

 attribute this darkness to an increase of carbon. But at Jullalpoor 

 the sword-cutters think it proceeds from increase of temper, and that 

 the stain upon the damask is dark according to the degree of its 

 temper. 



