As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, China had mastered the technology of folding pattern steel. There are many documents on the patterned steel sword in ancient times on the mainland to support it, such as the "Book of Yue Jie", which records that the three swords of Ganjun, OuYezi cast Longyuan, Tai'a, and Gongbu: "To know the dragon's abyss, to see its shape is like climbing a high mountain, approaching the abyss; to know Tai'a, to see its (golden melon) towering wings, like the waves of flowing water; to know the Gongbu, (golden melon) starts from the text, to the ridge, such as the pearl can not be eaten, the text is like flowing water." The so-called "golden melon" refers to the pattern on the sword, and the mountains, abysses, and flowing water are all the shapes of the patterns.
Craftsman workshop folding forging pattern steel knife
But later Qin Shi Huang "collected the world's soldiers", the six kingdoms of sword casting divisions died and fled, especially the three kingdoms of Wu, Yue and Chu, which were originally the concentrated production areas of famous swords, mastering the most advanced patterned sword forging technology, from where the scattered fugitives came to Japan, the Malay Islands and Persia, India, and carried forward the forging sword art originating from China, while the patterned steel sword in China was gradually declining.
This statement can be found in the ancient soldier works of the Asian paleontologist Zhou Wei, "Illustration of Ancient Weapons in Asia":
"The excellent armor of the ancient weapons of Asia is still immortal and practical, and it is not the one that can be resisted by the white blades of Europe and the United States." Pushing its source, it is actually based on the three generations of Chinese bronze soldiers and the bronze soldiers and iron soldiers cast by Wu Zhigan generals and Yue Zhi Ou Yezi during the Warring States period as their ancestors. ...... The Damascus flat pattern blade of the Islamic tribes, the welded Pamo rough face pattern blade of the Malay tribes, and the Japanese dark light pattern blade are successively and simultaneously known in the world, and are still immortal. "
This statement does have a certain basis, because during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China's pattern steel forging technology was indeed extremely prosperous, and there was no relevant trace in other countries in the same period, until after the Qin and Han Dynasties, the pattern steel technology in West Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia sprung up like mushrooms after the rain. Japanese sword masters and historians acknowledge that Japan's original sword-making technology came from China and Korea, and that Korean sword forging originated in China.
According to this line of thinking, the "three famous blades of the world" that are now famous in the world are actually the products of the good localization of the Islamic, Malay, and Japanese ethnic groups after the Chinese pattern steel technology blossomed everywhere. Why do ethnic groups in various regions invariably choose patterned steel? This is because the pattern of the pattern steel, which goes deep into the interior like a rock layer, is not just a flower shelf, but the best way out for the knifemaker to work out for the combination of rigidity and softness under the metallurgical level at that time. In ancient times, many high-quality swords were made of patterned steel.
The world's first blade, damascus flat pattern blade, the surface of the blade is black and white, as thin as the curl pattern of hair. This pattern is naturally formed during steel smelting, which is the result of crystallization of the internal tissue of steel, and its pattern shape is uncontrollable by man, called natural pattern steel. The pattern is basically produced by two materials with different properties. The bright color pattern is pure snow charcoal iron, its hardness can even exceed glass, and the dark pattern belongs to the Wostian iron and bolai iron, and the toughness is very good. In the tough bole iron, the snow charcoal iron, which is harder than glass, is evenly scattered, so that the Damascus knife not only has an unusually sharp blade, but also has a tough and difficult to break the body.
The natural patterned steel forged with Damascus knives is called Damascus steel. Around the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a pattern steel was introduced to China from Persia, which was called "pickaxe iron" at that time, and some experts believed that this was Damascus steel from the tribute. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol army marched west to burn all the way, once attacked the city of Damascus, and a city of Damascus craftsmen was brought back to the Central Plains as captives. The Yuan Dynasty had an iron bureau under the Ministry of Works, which was specifically responsible for refining iron knives. Turning around, the pattern steel forging technology has returned to the Central Plains. The predecessor of the craftsman's workshop, baoding Shanggu Knife Workshop during the Republic of China period, was founded by the descendants of the craftsmen, specializing in the creation of snowflake iron swords. At that time, it was also called folded flower steel in Beiping. Daniel Zhang is the fourth generation of Shanggu Knife Workshop, which was renamed as Craftsman Workshop after inheriting the Knife Factory, and is committed to excavating the traditional folding and forging pattern steel process, and has now originally developed dozens of "new Chinese"folding and forging pattern steel knives.
Damascus steel is now a generalized term, almost equivalent to patterned steel, but there is no doubt that it is still more popular with collectors than any other type of steel. However, the quality of Damascus steel on the modern market is uneven and needs to be carefully identified.