Maybe just call them human beings?wrdwrght wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:38 amIs it not fair to say that knife makers are an opportunist bunch?
In searching for that grail blade steel (or just value-judged one), they’ve tried any number of recipes, even ones where the resulting steels first found a role outside the world of knife making?
Once upon a time, even the Persians, well satisfied with their Wootz sword blades, were well known for out bidding any other buyer of Frankish steel. The source for that was a monastery that had its fame for about 200 years in what would be northern Germany now. They died out, just as the wootz smelters did.
The buying criteria at the time is that the Franks made a steel in which a sword would survive a Russian winter. Talk about history repeating itself.