A Study In Pattern - Welding

O DRING the past decade, metallurgists and other research workers have shown an increasing interest in the welding and forging techniques used in the manufacture of certain early European iron sword-blades. A number of detailed papers had been published on 'pattern-welding' by the I940s, but it was left to H. Maryonj r ) to recognize the practical problems involved and put the correct interpretation on the basic method. The terms pattern-welded and damascened have sometimes been used as though they were interchangeable. The two techniques are, however, quite distinct. A useful survey, both from the technical and the historical point of view, of all the various methods of manufacture which are known to have been used has been made by Smith (2), who also gives the relevant bibliography, and a more specific account by Maryontg ) has more recently appeared. Although there is a superficial family resemblance, the true Oriental damask is due essentially to a 'crystallization' phenomenon in a wrought steel (I '2-2 '0% of carbon), and far harder to produce. In pattern-welding the effects result primarily from the forging, twisting and welding together of strips of iron. Alternate strips of carbon-free and low carbon metal have been thought necessary to produce such a pattern, and up to 0·6% of carbon has been reportedf.j.) in some material. As the present work shows, however, patterns are obtained even with strips of the same, virtually carbon-free, iron. The need for further work was indicated after a ninth-century sword from the then bed of the Thames at Westminster had been cleaned and examined in the Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Ministry of Works, in I95I(5). The results could not be reconciled with the suggestion that certain folding techniques had been used by the makers of pattern-welded swords(6). At the same time full agreement was reached with Maryon's basic conclusion. Furthermore, the herringbone and other patterns observed, either on the surface or (on X-radiographs) within this type of blade, could evidently be produced by (the remains of) composite rods, each pile-forged from thin strips of iron, and adjacent ones twist-welded in opposite directions (3). Some of the difficulties inherent in this natural and apparently simple method of construction were revealed when a