How rust resistant is true wootz steel (not pattern-welded Damascus) compared to today's high C tool steels? I've read anecdotal accounts of newly discovered (at the time) wootz steel having little to absolutely no rust. There seems to be many museum examples of rust-free wootz blades, granted they're in the immaculate care of the museum. Assuming, however, that these wootz blades were found with the blade in rust-free shape, why would that be?
From a (small) sample size of wootz swords, Verhoeven identified the composition of original wootz blades (balance iron):
The other elements seem to be minimal, or non-factors (other than manganese and phosphorus), and the composition of wootz seems to effectively be "iron + carbon". So, chromium, molybdenum, nitrogen, etc. don't seem to be contributing factors to the accounts that wootz is relatively rust resistant.
Then, is it the quality of the elements going in + the process, which makes wootz steel rust resistant, relative to other carbon or tool steels? But, today's tool steels have very refined elements going in... so, is the process really that remarkable in terms of providing rust resistance? Maybe, I don't know, though I would imagine that India, where wootz was first developed, as it is of humid climate, would both cause more rust to and make necessary a highly rust resistant blade. So, the motivation is there - just as the Japanese had to work with naturally unrefined ore deposits, thus enabling them to develop their own techniques to refine the steel that would make their blades (which also has very neat patterns built-in, albeit from all of the folded layers of steel). Or, perhaps the entire premise is off base - that is, wootz steel rusts the same as these other tool steels.
I'm not trying to compare wootz's performance to modern super steels, stainless steels, or even higher chromium non-stainless steels such as D2... or other characteristics such as edge retention, toughness, etc... just want to know the rust resistant properties with respect to other tool steels. Or, let's say, under the same conditions, would true wootz steel be similar to or more rust resistant than 1095 or an even higher C content carbon steel? And, if so, what would cause wootz to be rust resistant?
Please enlighten or offer some perspective into this - thanks in advance to all.
From a (small) sample size of wootz swords, Verhoeven identified the composition of original wootz blades (balance iron):
The other elements seem to be minimal, or non-factors (other than manganese and phosphorus), and the composition of wootz seems to effectively be "iron + carbon". So, chromium, molybdenum, nitrogen, etc. don't seem to be contributing factors to the accounts that wootz is relatively rust resistant.
Then, is it the quality of the elements going in + the process, which makes wootz steel rust resistant, relative to other carbon or tool steels? But, today's tool steels have very refined elements going in... so, is the process really that remarkable in terms of providing rust resistance? Maybe, I don't know, though I would imagine that India, where wootz was first developed, as it is of humid climate, would both cause more rust to and make necessary a highly rust resistant blade. So, the motivation is there - just as the Japanese had to work with naturally unrefined ore deposits, thus enabling them to develop their own techniques to refine the steel that would make their blades (which also has very neat patterns built-in, albeit from all of the folded layers of steel). Or, perhaps the entire premise is off base - that is, wootz steel rusts the same as these other tool steels.
I'm not trying to compare wootz's performance to modern super steels, stainless steels, or even higher chromium non-stainless steels such as D2... or other characteristics such as edge retention, toughness, etc... just want to know the rust resistant properties with respect to other tool steels. Or, let's say, under the same conditions, would true wootz steel be similar to or more rust resistant than 1095 or an even higher C content carbon steel? And, if so, what would cause wootz to be rust resistant?
Please enlighten or offer some perspective into this - thanks in advance to all.
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