Quote:
Originally Posted by ariel
A “crack” on the spine is the remainder of the upper junky layer of a wootz ingot. Sometimes it remains empty, but sometimes it is filled with a silver wire. The trick of forging the ingot into the blade is to bring this part of ingot to the middle of the spine. Usually this “crack” is no more than ~10 cm long. I have never seen it going all the way to the tip. This would be a sign of a superb bladesmith. Can you show it?
The “crack is very helpful if the blade was oxydized and the wootz pattern is no longer visible. Then one can be sure that polishing and etching will bring the pattern back.
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I will take some photos of this weekend.