page_title: Pattern welding
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pattern welding / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A rare 19th century 'shandigan' barung (barong). The short sword barung is commonly used by the Tausug Moros of Sulu archipelago. A shandigan-type barung is one with a swollen cutting edge. The photo of the entire sword is here. Another fine feature of this barung is the clearly visible exquisite lamination patterns. This close-up photo shows in great detail the said pattern. Barung dImensions -- overall length: 545 mm (21 1/2 inches); blade length: 370 mm (14 1/2 inches), maximum blade thickness: 8 mm (5/16 inch). Other uploaded materials by the same author are here: (a) Luzon weapons; (b) Visayan weapons; (c) Moro weapons; and (d) Lumad (non-Moro Mindanao) weapons
context_page_description: Pattern welding is the practice in sword and knife making of forming a blade of several metal pieces of differing composition that are forge-welded together and twisted and manipulated to form a pattern. Often mistakenly called Damascus steel, blades forged in this manner often display bands of slightly different patterning along their entire length. These bands can be highlighted for cosmetic purposes by proper polishing or acid etching. Pattern welding was an outgrowth of laminated or piled steel, a similar technique used to combine steels of different carbon contents, providing a desired mix of hardness and toughness. Although modern steelmaking processes negate the need to blend different steels, pattern welded steel is still used by custom knifemakers for the cosmetic effects it produces.
context_section_description: Pattern welding developed out of the necessarily complex process of making blades that were both hard and tough from the erratic and unsuitable output from early iron smelting in bloomeries.  The bloomery does not generate temperatures high enough to melt iron and steel, but instead reduces the iron oxide ore into particles of pure iron, which then weld into a mass of sponge iron, consisting of lumps of impurities in a matrix of relatively pure iron, which is too soft to make a good blade.  Carburizing thin iron bars or plates forms a layer of harder, high carbon steel on the surface, and early bladesmiths would forge these bars or plates together to form relatively homogeneous bars of steel.  This laminating process, in which different types of steel together produce patterns that can be seen in the surface of the finished blade, forms the basis for pattern welding.
caption: Close-up view of the blade of the same Moro barung
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