wootz blade welded back together

tom hyle · 18th December 2006, 09:31 PM

First, I am very curious as to any traditional welding procedure that would not lose material from the blade; a forge-welded blade would need to be entirely resurfaced. Second, any modern method I'm familiar with would tend to require a full retempering (with ordinary steel; bulat is more delicate in this regard; yes?), so I'm curious about this whole subject. Interesting that if such midpoint welds are very rare, it seems strange that such appear A/ on other types/nationalities of swords (ie. the Confederate hanger), and B/ on my brother's only tulwar, by odd coincidence (it's a bulat one, too). I don't think it is at all usual or maybe possible to carry out any sort of traditional "true" (ie non-solder) weld with a hilt in place, BTW; this seems an unrealistic conception that is repeatedly encountered.
As to scarf welds attaching tang to blade at forte, they are by no means at all unusual, nor a mark of low quality (though such is often misattributed out of an industrial respect for homogeneity); nor is it seen only on "Eastern" blades, but in Europe as well. Commonly (by members of industrial societies with certains prejudices concerning preindutrial/nonindustrial production) attributed as an economy, this was probably done to increase strength on a hard-part/soft-part theory/conception. I'm not sure either that it would follow that using two pieces of wootz/bulat was a matter of economics (it seems the stuff traded by weight; yes?), but of, perhaps, simple availability. Still there seems no positive indication of repair as opposed to original production weld, IMHO.

18th December 2006, 09:31 PM	#9
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	First, I am very curious as to any traditional welding procedure that would not lose material from the blade; a forge-welded blade would need to be entirely resurfaced. Second, any modern method I'm familiar with would tend to require a full retempering (with ordinary steel; bulat is more delicate in this regard; yes?), so I'm curious about this whole subject. Interesting that if such midpoint welds are very rare, it seems strange that such appear A/ on other types/nationalities of swords (ie. the Confederate hanger), and B/ on my brother's only tulwar, by odd coincidence (it's a bulat one, too). I don't think it is at all usual or maybe possible to carry out any sort of traditional "true" (ie non-solder) weld with a hilt in place, BTW; this seems an unrealistic conception that is repeatedly encountered. As to scarf welds attaching tang to blade at forte, they are by no means at all unusual, nor a mark of low quality (though such is often misattributed out of an industrial respect for homogeneity); nor is it seen only on "Eastern" blades, but in Europe as well. Commonly (by members of industrial societies with certains prejudices concerning preindutrial/nonindustrial production) attributed as an economy, this was probably done to increase strength on a hard-part/soft-part theory/conception. I'm not sure either that it would follow that using two pieces of wootz/bulat was a matter of economics (it seems the stuff traded by weight; yes?), but of, perhaps, simple availability. Still there seems no positive indication of repair as opposed to original production weld, IMHO.