FYI The production of crucible Damascus steel

[Gt Obach]

Hi Ann

in regards to the sham pattern.. which by my definition is a pattern of straight and course waterings can be produced in hypereutectoid steel.... the way i've done this is through the technique of hammering the steel....

generally when you hammer steel, the face of the hammer has a crown or curvature..... and this dimples the steel causing it to flow outward...
- the hammer face has an effect on pattern
-- if you hammer with a flat faced french hammer... you distort the pattern very little...... and the waterings will be straighter

-- but if you use a small narrow face hammer with a curved crown...it'll give a very busy watering (this is all excluding cutting or drilling grooves for pattern effects)

i aggree with the waterings getting finer the more forge cycles.... since I hand hammer all my ingots by myself..... the few times I was lucky enough to have an apprentice, the pattern was coarse
- at the moment it takes 2days of forging with a 8 or 12lbs hammer to get the ingot to barstock
- as you can see on the net.... most other smiths use powerhammers and presses to make wootz.... so their patterns are usually coarse

- i suspect that in ancient times ...to produce a coarse pattern the master smith would have two apprenti, sledging down the ingot...... reducing the forge cycles dramatically

this is just my opinion

thank you for your post... it is wonderful !!!

Greg

here is a pic of a straight waterings... with the matrix oxide buffed out