Damascus steel, part III: The Wadsworth-Sherby mechanism

Several blades have been forged from a Fe-1.6 wt% C alloy after heat treating to form austenite grain boundary allotriomorph (GBA) cementite (Cm). This is the Wadsworth-Sherby technique [2] proposed as the mechanism for forming the pattern on Damascus blades. Both the forging temperature and the severity of metal flow during forging were systematically varied. The pattern obtained were compared to a genuine Damascus sword and shown to be macroscopically somewhat similar, but microscopically quite different. It is concluded that the Wadsworth-Sherby technique is probably not the technique used by ancient blacksmiths to produce the Damask pattern in their blades.