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Recreating The Lost Art Of Damascus Steel

Posted by Hemos on from the looking-in-the-past-for-the-future dept.

YouAreFatMan writes "The Chicago Tribune has an article about two researchers -- a metallurgist and a blacksmith -- who have apparently been able to reproduce the legendary Damascus steel. 'Islamic artisans used it for centuries to make swords that spurred envy and myths among Europeans--including the legend that a Damascus blade could slice a falling silk scarf in midair.'"

17 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Boycott Damascus Steel!! by Wog · · Score: 3, Funny

    Remember: Steel wants to be free!

    Please...
    Don't anthropomorphize steel. It hates that.

  2. I can't resist by jayhawk88 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The original artisans did not leave complete instructions for making their steel, and the few written formulas are less than helpful. Some advise quenching the red-hot blade in the urine of a red-haired boy or of a goat fed nothing but ferns. Another text suggests driving the sword into the belly of a muscular slave.

    Ironically, scientists also believe this is how the first versions of Windows were created.

  3. Re:Interesting, but not surprising considering by cygnus · · Score: 5, Funny
    For example, the concept of 0 comes to the West through them.

    Hey, yeah, thanks for nothin! ;-)

    --
    Just raise the taxes on crack.
  4. Re:Boycott Damascus Steel!! by BlackSol · · Score: 5, Funny

    OK, lets invent our own process of making Damascus Steel, and make a bunch of swords (our slogan? We put the SLASH in /.)

    Then, all of us armed with the swords will first go get Dimitry freed, then proceed to the whitehouse to make some demands.

    Remember Congressmen (and the pres for that matter) wear SILK ties.

    --
    $sig=$1 if($brain =~ /idea\s+(.*)/i);
  5. Quenching the steel by ptomblin · · Score: 3, Funny

    One of the features of the myth surrounding Damascus swords was that they were quenched by plunging the sword hot from the forge into the body of a slave. I wonder if Microsoft has enough middle managers to keep a good modern production line going for a while?

    --
    The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
  6. choice quote.. by PopeAlien · · Score: 5, Funny
    "If you just keep at something like this, beating your brains out, eventually you can figure it out," said John Verhoeven, the Iowa State professor. "But it took us an embarrassingly long time to do it."
    ..Probably faster to beat the metal, but whatever works for you..

    The solution? "You heat it up really hot and beat on it really hard," Verhoeven said.
    This works for computers too!

    --
    air and light and time and space
  7. mmmm.... by djocyko · · Score: 3, Funny

    /me turns on Home Shopping Network in search of the new Damascus Steal Ginsu Knife:

    "It slices, it dices, it cuts through silk cans!!! It'll cut your fingers off cleaner than ever!!!"

  8. Are you kidding? by Pedrito · · Score: 3, Funny

    ....they concede the technology in its current, labor-intensive form probably is not a moneymaker.

    Why not? Hell, I'd pay a ton of money for one of them. And I know just the client to test it out on too.

  9. Slashdot Stuff! by resistant · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is the sort of cutting edge technology that belongs on Slashdot!

    --
    A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
  10. Wow by sllort · · Score: 5, Funny


    "Sometimes I'd have to tell him, `I don't care if you've got a PhD, you don't understand what the hell's going on here,'" Pendray said.

    Someone get this man a slashdot account.

  11. Well that's the most useful thing ever by Uttles · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean I can't count the number of times I've been in battle and needed to slice through falling silk in mid air... geesh, I wish I had one of those

    --

    ~ now you know
    1. Re:Well that's the most useful thing ever by tswinzig · · Score: 5, Funny

      the aesthetically and functionally perfect curve of a katana doesn't form until the nearly-finished blade is quenched, and it forms naturally - it's not forged in. The differing hardness and thickness on either side of the blade causes it to cool and contract at different speeds, forming the curve.

      So what you're saying is that it's the age-old blacksmith's retort when questioned about the curve in the katana blade:

      It's not a bug, it's a feature!

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
  12. Boycott Damascus Steel!! by Dr.+Prakash+Kothari · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article:

    "Although Verhoeven and Pendray have patented their technique and received some funding from Nucor Steel Inc."

    Steel wants to be FREE, people, and Nucor wants to keep this technology to themselves to help further their globalized corporate profitmaking.

    This is an outrage to the Open Source community, and I am hereby calling upon all Linux geeks to band together and produce their own Open-Source version of Damascus Steel. It's high time we show these people we are not going to tolerate their greedy ballyhooing at the expense of poor Dimitry and sweatshop workers in Malaysia. Write your congressman today and request, nay, DEMAND that the DMCA and CSS and DVDA be repealed so we can steal MP3's again.

    Remember: Steel wants to be free!!

    Free Dimitry!!

    --

    "Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or dead." -Kurt Cobain

  13. Re:not DVDA! by Fesh · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...DVDA stands for Double-vaginal-double-anal...

    Which, oddly enough, is probably the most succinct description of the DMCA that I've ever seen...

    --
    --Fesh
    Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
  14. Operators Are Standing By by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny
    For hundreds of years, some of the keenest minds in science sought in vain to tap the secret of how blacksmiths in ancient India and the Middle East fashioned a supremely tough metal known as Damascus steel.

    Sorry, but I was subjected to a number of info-mercials this weekend and this copy reads just like it...

    It slices, it dices, it purees european knights at the flick of a wrist! How much would you pack for this? But wait! Act now and we'll throw in this handsome silk scarf! All for only 6 easy monthly payments of $19.95 Have your credit card handy and call 1-888-555-1234! Don't wait another minute! Buyers who contact us within the next 10 minutes will also receive this book: Greek Fire Made E-Z

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  15. Re:Underappreciated..... by mpe · · Score: 3, Funny

    I forget the details exactly but the import ant thing is that this monument has been standing for hundreds of year, and it has NOT RUSTED a bit! -- this is in India's tropical climate! Corrosion problems cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars each year and I know of more than one civil engineer who would kill to find the secrets of those ancient blacksmiths.

    But paint manufactures might want them kept secret :)

  16. Listen... by YouAreFatMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...can you hear it? That's the sound of a few thousand rabid Highlander fanatics drooling over their own piece-together Damascus-steel Kurgan sword.

    Or, for the ladies, a Damascus-steel Xena death-frisbee.

    --
    Robotiq.com is heavily tested on animals