Can Wootz steel be made today? (not pattern welded damascus)

[Fireman]

Can Wootz steel be made today for knives? Would there be a demand for it?

[Bloke]

Hey Fireman, Heimo Roselli makes Wootz steel.

I have one of his little Bear Claws somewhere and I’ll eventually buy one of his Minnows pictured below, because I need more knives. Ah, hahaha!

[Fireman]

cool!
How do you like the steel?

[Bloke]

cool!
How do you like the steel?

The steel is very hard around 66+Rc from memory so please don’t quote me.

The little knife I have is a short blade Scandi grind which I use/used to whittle our hardwood and fair to say it has pretty impressive edge retention. Though I haven’t done any true side by side comparisons.

What I can say with certainty is, you don’t want to drop it edge first on a ceramic tile floor. Unless of course you have some quality diamond plates and a few days to spare. Ah, hahaha!

[Deadboxhero]

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/07/30/ ... cus-steel/

[Fireman]

thanks for the link.

[sal]

Al Pendray was making Wootz, and he worked with Professor Verhoven on Wootz. They spent a week testing Wootz blades at our lab in Golden some time ago. He cooked his Wootz in a crucible for several days.

I've got an Al Pendray Wootz Persian dagger, serrated.

sal

[archangel]

Al Pendray was making Wootz, and he worked with Professor Verhoven on Wootz. They spent a week testing Wootz blades at our lab in Golden some time ago. He cooked his Wootz in a crucible for several days.

I've got an Al Pendray Wootz Persian dagger, serrated.

sal

Share a picture, please?! Me likes daggers...

[Fireman]

Rabbit hole

[sal]

I'll see if we can get a pic posted. I spent a great deal of time with Al Pendray, who, along with Prof. Verhoven probably knows more about Wootz than anyone. He made crucible Wootz for years. Pendray and Verhoven had our CATRA for a week of testing on Wootz.

sal

[sal]

It might be an interesting thread, or even a project for "Ghost Hunters" to explain the differences between;

Viking Pattern welded steel ( 800-1200 A.D.)
European Pattern welded steel (Damascus?) circa 1500
Wootz - circa 1500
Japanese Sword making process steel 800 A.D. to present (moving carbon into the steel via charcoal and folding.
Takefu "Damascus" - 21st century , layered
Damasteel - 21st century

sal

[Fireman]

That’s some deep dive stuff. It is interesting to have what they had hundreds of years ago to have a reference for whAt we have today.

[TomAiello]

I own two Roselli Wootz knives, and they are very nice. I'm not sure they have anything to add when compared to more modern steels in the same general hardness categories (k390, for example) but they are really well made traditional pattern knives as well as a fantastic example of old techniques being used by artisans in the modern era. I'd definitely recommend them to any knife aficionados for pure interest value.

I bought mine from Lamnia (https://www.lamnia.com/en/search?s=roselli%20uhc), which is also a good source for Spyderco knives and one of my go-to dealers, but you can buy them direct from Roselli too (https://roselli.fi/collections/knives-uhc-steel)

Given the comparability of wootz to something like k390, I can see how it had an almost mythical reputation a couple hundred years ago.