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Originally Posted by ariel
Once again, it shows the importance of the forging process: minute and pretty "mechanical" dendrites of the ingot are transformed into a complex pattern...
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Other way around Ariel. The dendritic pattern is the chemical structure of the ingot right out of smelting. The Persian pattern is the result of mechanical stretching and deformation of the basis dendritic pattern.
Re-reading Jeff Pringle and other smiths, a lot of crucible steel-like material will exhibit the dendritic structure. it can be deformed and made to look like what we would call wootz. Recall
the "mill ball" discussions.
Here is an excerpt from Jeff Pringle's explanation in that thread.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Pringle
My definition of ‘wootz’ is: a simple carbon steel with over ~1.3% carbon, forged in such a way as to have banded carbide structures. (Others have slightly different definitions). This takes into account that we understand how to make wootz now, so the old definition is no longer sufficient. The classic ‘wootz’ pattern (how those old swords look) can be made from almost any dendritic steel, and perhaps in some cases from regular hi-carbon barstock, but with those materials the bands are not always saturated with iron carbides.
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