No idea if it is alloy banding. But shigefusa clouds seem to stay although patina will cover it up a bit, but next polish will bring the cloud back alive.
Ok noobie question: Can someone explain Damascus vs Wootz vs pattern-welded? I thought if it was 2+ different steels foldeded onto each other it was just damascus.
Ok noobie question: Can someone explain Damascus vs Wootz vs pattern-welded? I thought if it was 2+ different steels foldeded onto each other it was just damascus.
Damascus = Pattern welded steel. Two(or more) different steels that have different levels of Nickel, and therefore contrast when etched in acid, mashed together to create patterns.
Wootz = The steel that was used in what is now Syria to make swords. It was just a high carbon steel that got heat treated really funny, and developed visible lines(they were Iron Carbide structures IIRC). It performed better because it was hard, very high carbon steel(like 1.3% or something). Wootz blades are monosteel. It was a technique lost to time until a guy named Al Pendray re-created it. Pattern welding was the solution to simulating the look before Pendray, and now has taken over the term "Damascus".
Its quite far from southern India to Syria if you ask me.
Im not so sure about heat treatment, have to ask, but this steel was poured into forms and cooled in special way that made it look so funky.
Im quite sure the guy mentioned the cooling was the most important part of it.
Im still waiting on my test wootz kitchen blade and it is so interesting that Im quite pissed it take so long
lol yeah. The only knife for food I've seen from that part of India(that wasn't just like a pocket knife or a giant plate of steel) was some kind of weird knife-bowl combo thingy and you held the food and smacked it onto the knife.