Marius,
Japanese blades were forged from two kinds of steel and were true pattern-welded.
First, by a tatara process they got a bloom, crushed it and the smith separated high-carbon from low- carbon fragments and forged them separately into 2 different bars, one of “ hagane “ steel with ~1.4% carbon, another from “ zuku” steel with 3-4% carbon. After that, they forged them together, bent them, twisted them etc, and got a pattern welded blade.
The same process was used by Northern Europeans to produce “ Viking swords”. Even La Tene swords upon polishing and etching reveal pattern-welded structure.
All that I have learned from Manfred Sachse’s book.
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