Damask armor - what is it? Bulat steel: characteristics. The Mystery of the Ancient Bulat

A sparkling damask is born
From soft iron, hard steel.
And stronger the sword becomes a hundredfold,
And on the blade - patterned spirals.

( Alexander Simonov, The Damned Sword )

Originally from a fairy tale

Everyone knows that fairy tales are not just interesting stories that can be taken by children, but also a storehouse of wisdom that weaves a cunning pattern with historical events and epic stories.

In the tales of mighty warriors and noble knights, there is often a term such as "damask armor." The strongest and most courageous heroes performed their exploits with bullet steel weapons. What kind of metal is this? Why is he so good? Why so expensive and so valuable? And in general, damask armor - what is it? Armor, shield, visor? Or maybe this metal is a secret development of blacksmiths that have sunk into oblivion, an experiment of extraterrestrials or a gift from above?

Is there in our time and is valued as in ancient times, bullet armor? The meaning of the word "damask", the origin and use of this metal are described in this article. We will reveal all the secrets of a truly fairy-tale steel, which is actually quite real.

Weapons of illustrious heroes

Damask armor is an obsolete name for cold steel. And not armor, as it may seem at first glance. For comparison: analogies of the word "armor" in the twin-languages Polish (bron) and Czech (zbrane) mean exactly steel weapons, such as a damask blade, sword, knife, dagger or saber.

Such famous fairy-tale characters as the heroes Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich, King Arthur and Svyatogor, possessed an indestructible weapon from damask steel, thanks to which they were considered invincible soldiers. The meaning of the word "damask" is simple - it is reinforced steel.

Mystery from space

The mystery of the ancient bulat lies in the distant past, or rather in 1421, when an iron meteorite fell to Earth near the Russian city of Yaroslavl. A huge piece of metal, falling from the sky, was considered a gift of the gods and was spent only on a unique weapon. Access to extraterrestrial metal had only a few eminent blacksmiths, and blades and knives from bulat steel were forged for selected warriors.

Legendary uniqueness

Swords, forged from ordinary iron, broke and bent after the first 2-3 blows, damn same served forever. They could easily cut an iron shield or rasporot armor of the enemy. It is also surprising that, despite its incredible strength, damask blades were very elastic and bent by 90-120 degrees, without losing its integrity. Thus, the enemy's simple cold weapons in battle, if not dull, then scattered to pieces, like broken glass, while bulat armor remained whole and sharp. If you believe the legend, for the bullet sword they gave as much gold as the blade weighed, and he weighed a lot!

Fairy metal

Despite the fact that the meteorite was great, and the blacksmiths are extremely economical, the stocks of the unique metal have been exhausted. Damascus armor eventually turned into a legendary weapon from the past, thanks to which many great victories were won. Information about miraculous weapons was passed from mouth to mouth, from old men to young ones.

Since that time many years have passed, but the heroic damask armor, the value of which only rose over the years, did not give people peace. Patterned blades, forged from steel, were sung in epics, myths, legends. Here are just a few examples of how in tales mentioning a bulat and armor from it:

• In the book about Vladimir Krasnoy Solnyshko, one of the heroes, sparkling with damask armor, fights against the "enemy cursed";
• In the "Tale of Tsar Saltan," written by Pushkin, the merchants, in addition to gold and silver, brought damask;
• The peasant son Ivan conquers the unknown Miracle-Yudo, knocking his head off with a bullet sword;
• In a fairy tale about the adventures of the resourceful tramp of Aladdin, travelers are frightened by poison and bulat;
• Brother Ivanushka, who drank water from a puddle and turned to a kid, calls his sister Alyonushka to the aid of the words: "The knives are sharp, they want to slaughter me ...";
• Finlie the hunter in the fairy tale of the same name warns that he wants to be killed with a sharp bullet sword;
• In the book "The Mistress of the Enchanted Forest" the main character Velimir in search of the wicked witch with his sword from the damask cuts his way into the branches and thickets;
• The great and mighty warrior Eruslan Lazarevich cuts off the head of the treacherous Serpent with an orthodox sword.

In addition to ancient tales and legends, in modern verse and prose there is often a phrase "damask armor". The meaning of the word is invaluable in the literature, accordingly, thanks to the modern authors of the damask, it still exists. Here are contemporaries, whose efforts preserve the knowledge of super-weapons:

• Victor Prishepenko ("And armed with zelo").
• Andrei Shabelnikov ("The Sword of the Damaged Brave Teuton").
• Sergei Semyonov ("Riding on Gorynych").
• Ninel Koshkina ("Does the Shadow know his place?").
• Sergei Stepanov ("Rage of the Normans").

Treasure from India

The first artificially created bulat learned to do in India. Then the secret of the production of high-strength metal seeped into Iran and Central Asia. True, in those parts of damask steel, the characteristics of which exceeded all the most daring expectations, was called in a different way. In India, it was "Vuets", and in Asia and Iran - "Farand", "Taban", "Horasan".

Persian scientist encyclopedist Al Biruni, who lived in the Middle Ages and who knew the knowledge practically in all scientific spheres of that time, wrote a whole treatise on the damascus. It has survived in the ancient archives to the present day. Al Biruni wrote: "Damascus armor is obtained by melting two substances that melt unevenly and do not mix with each other until uniform, resulting in two-color blades that are valued extraordinarily high."

Damask armor is easily recognizable by the characteristic patterned pattern. It is obtained as a result of the crystallization of carbon and is a distinctive sign of the difference of such products. In addition, the bladed steel blades were incredibly sharp. For example, they easily cut a thrown on the edge of a scarf made of the finest gas cloth.

Mastery of Damascus Blacksmiths

Most damask armor was produced in Syrian Damascus. Round bars of damascus were brought to Syria from India, and Damascus smiths already forged magnificent, fabulous weapons. Daggers, swords and blades cost more than gold and were a symbol of wealth and prosperity.

The price of Indian bulat grew exponentially. And the Syrian craftsmen, through the arrangement of different types of steel and multiple forging, created a welded bulat, which to this day is called damask steel and is very much appreciated.

After Syria was captured by one of the commanders of Khan Togluk - Tamerlane, he took all the smiths out of the conquered country and settled them in Samarkand. However, in captivity, the master worked very badly. And over time blacksmithing stole. The descendants of the Syrian masters settled throughout the world, and the way of manufacturing bulat and armor from it was completely forgotten.

In the footsteps of the ancient traders

There is evidence that steel, very similar to bulat, was made in Japan. The blades, brought from this country, had the same flexibility and strength as weapons from space material.

With the expansion of trade routes, eastern metal, as well as sabers, daggers and knives from damask steel were in Russia. In historical sources, there are reports that Russian smiths bought this material for the manufacture of very expensive weapons.

Bulat armor, the value of which was unusually high in those countries with which the East was trading, was very much appreciated in England. This is evidenced by reports of the Royal Academy of England, dated 1795 and preserved to this day. They describe the events associated with the purchase of ingot steel ingots for research.

However, the secret of manufacturing the miracle metal was stored with seven seals. And this is not surprising: after all, in the old days there were no chemical laboratories and analyzes, so it was simply impossible to derive the formula of an ideal bulat. Everything was done by eye, and the approximate proportions and composition were kept in the strictest secrecy. Few people reliably knew and how correctly manufactured damask armor. The meaning of the word "damask" was nevertheless associated with the best quality of weapons and brought warriors to awe.

Spread of forgery

Years later, smiths of Europe tried to recreate at least Damascus steel, but failed. They had no choice but to learn how to make a false metal, the weapons outwardly looked like a bullet, but on the other qualities it was not compared to the true armor of myths.

In the 18-19th centuries, the production of counterfeit bulat was widespread in Italy, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and France. Weapons from it, especially Germanic and Spanish, enjoyed tremendous popularity thanks to a beautiful appearance, combining mirror polish and beautiful patterns. The quality of the false damask armor left much to be desired. Because the weapons were made of ordinary carbon steel of poor quality.

Reconstructed from the Dark Ages

Several centuries passed before Russia created bulat steel, which in its composition was almost a copy of the eastern samples. Reproduction of the legendary two-tone metal was handled personally by a mining engineer, a metallurgical scientist and part-time major general - Pavel Petrovich Anosov. He, a talented Russian, a patriot of his Motherland, who grew up on fairy tales about the heroes, was sure that bulat armor is an indestructible weapon.

It all started in 1828, when the Mining Department instructed Anosov, the head of the Zlatoust factory (Chelyabinsk Region), to disclose the secret of heavy-duty steel and to work out the bulat formula. Developments and experiments, a succession of successes and failures lasted more than 10 years. In the process of research, the scientist first used a microscope for studying metals, and also replaced the gilding of blades with galvanization.

Anosov mixed iron ore and graphite, combined various types of iron, melted metals in air and in a vacuum - in a word, experimented.

At the end of 1838 Pavel Petrovich still managed to get the patterned steel - cast Bulat, in no way inferior in quality ancient oriental patterns. In 1839, ingots of metal and products from it went to an exhibition in St. Petersburg. And already in 1841 Anosov wrote one of his biggest works - "On the Bulat", which was nominated for the Demidov Prize.

Thanks to this clever man, damask armor, the meaning of which was sung in ancient tales, ceased to be an unattainable dream.

Anosov's Bulat

What was the bulat, recreated Anosov? In terms of its chemical properties, this metal differed from steel by the increased content of various carbons and was very similar in terms of parameters to that of cast iron. However, unlike nekogogo, fragile cast iron, bulat was softer and pliable and at the same time incredibly hard and strong. To get a quality bulat, it was necessary to strictly observe the production technology. Otherwise, improper processing can turn this strong metal into ordinary steel.

After the death of Anosov, the secret of manufacturing quality bulat was again lost. Perhaps it was just hidden from unnecessary eyes, or maybe it happened as a result of a careless relationship. However, after a while, the inventor and metallurgist Dmitry Konstantinovich Chernov set out to recreate the Anosovian bulat.

He carried out a great many experiments, mixing low-sulfur iron and silver graphite in different proportions. As a result, Chernov received a fine patterned metal, but found that when the forging is finished, the pattern disappears. The scientist came to the conclusion that the main condition for creating bulat armor is the correctly chosen temperature for forging. Despite the attempts made, he did not manage to get the same famous metal.

Is it all about molybdenum?

More recently, during the next excavations, a blade of Japanese bulat was made in the 12th century. Chemical weapons analysis revealed one of the mysteries of the unique qualities of this material. Scientists have found molybdenum-ductile transition refractory metal in steel, which is not naturally found. In the modern weapons industry molybdenum has long been used as an alloying additive to various types of steel. This increases the strength and toughness of the weapon.

It is unlikely that the ancient Japanese knew about molybdenum. Most likely, iron ore, from which they made weapons, contained a large amount of this chemical element.

Mystery is not solved!

To date, modern types of steel are significantly superior to bulat. And yet it is still one of the most advanced metals for the production of cold steel.

If you set a goal, you can find a craftsman, a blacksmith, who is able to forge a knife. In the end, life always has a place for a fairy tale ...

The pattern of the blade is always unique,
With others, he is not like a person.
A sword to a warrior is both a friend and a twin brother ...
In it is the pain of war and peace poetry.

( Alexander Simonov, The Damned Sword )