Wootz Steel

Timeline

1. 1371–1374Mysore Hills smelting district · KarnatakaSouth Indian artisans sealed iron ore, charcoal, and carburizers such as leaves in clay crucibles, reducing at high heat over several days to obtain high-carbon steel ingots. In the 1370s, despite frequent warfare among Deccan states, local smelting workshops still fired their furnaces according to the monsoon cycle, producing wootz billets for local weaponsmiths and export merchants.
2. 1375–1378Calicut · KeralaMalabar Coast ports were key nodes on the trade route shipping wootz steel to West Asia and Egypt. In the 1370s, Arab and Persian merchants purchased South Indian steel ingots here, transshipping them to Damascus, Istanbul, and elsewhere, where local bladesmiths fold-forged them into the famed Damascus patterned steel.
3. 1378–1380Artisan district of the Vijayanagara capital · KarnatakaBy around 1380, wootz steel supplied not only exports but also local weapons workshops in the Deccan kingdoms, for forging swords, spearheads, and armor plates. Ongoing warfare between Vijayanagara and the Bahmani Sultanate drove up demand for high-quality steel, promoting linked development of South Indian smelting and arms manufacturing.