"Alfred Pendray, Wootz Hunter" - a Craftsmanship documentary short film
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- The late Al Pendray was a country blacksmith who rediscovered an ancient sword-making technique that eluded the world’s greatest metal scientists for centuries. Read the full story here: craftsmanship....
I was Alfred’s last student before he passed on. He was an incredible story teller.
Wish you can teach his legacy on
You were his student? Could i talk to you by any chance?
All them Pendtays are good
I met Al at Quad-State (a blacksmith convention in Troy Ohio) he talked about how to make Wootz steel. I got there a little late and the seating was all taken, so I stood in the back. As folks moved on to see other demonstrations, I just kept moving closer, until there was just me, my friend running the camera and Al. we talked for more than an hour about making steel and how he built his own foundry, about working with Dr.Verhoeven, and just about the wonder and excitement of making the steel. He was a great man.
Great story, Terry! Thank you for sharing this with us. Al is dearly missed.
RIP Al... I don't know that we will ever have another exactly like you.
Thanks hugely, RonRay. Having spent a good bit of time with Al Pendray to make this film, and in the years leading up to it, I can assure you that you are 100% correct. Al was a true original -- smart as a whip, down to earth, as inventive as they come, and as dignified as a prince. Everyone who knew him will miss him dearly. -Todd Oppenheimer, publisher
he's a young buck rn. give him time (alec steele)
There’s some people in this world you never tire of listening to, they are very rare and even more special. Alfred Pendray was one such person. Rest in peace Sir as you forge the swords for Archangel Michael and his army of angels.
A beautiful sentiment... Al Pendray was certainly one of a kind...
The work of these men will live on through me temporarily until I completely burn down the garage while attempting to decipher their amazing abilities.
One of my favorite childhood memories on a thoroughbred horse farm was seeing the Pendray family show up. As a kid interested in science, I'd always volunteer to hold the horses for Alfred. He was always ready with another hour or so of lecture material on metallurgy.
*Rest in peace AL we will not forget you*
When wonderful people put their heart and soul into making beautiful things this is what you get. What an achievement and what a video too! Thank you very much and God bless you!
Боря - Thank you SO much for this very kind comment. You captured exactly why we made this film -- and why we started our organization and publication. We are glad to have you with us.
Al... I don't know you, but I wish I had the privilege. Just from a few minutes of one of your videos, I realized how special you were. A gentle, wise, lovable man. Certain people are like magnets... You were one. Impossible to tire of your company , your precious spirit. All this and I've never met you. Thank God for people like you... You restore our faith in the rest of humanity. God bless you sir.
What a great man he was!Master Al I will never forget you!
A great man, indeed!
I was so much looking forward to seeing Al teach and get everything perfect. Rest in Peace Al , thank you for these videos and your dedication.
The reasons why Wootz might've been lost. First look at where vanadium and iron mines are both present in India. Three places that has both vanadium and iron mines at the same place are Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha. Now we'll look at the time period of crusade wars, which happened between (1095 to 1571) AD. That's approximately 500 years. Crusades are wars fought at the name of religion. Now we'll look at what happened in these three places during this time frame. During this time i.e, from 9th to 11th century AD, most Indian dynasties were either at minor war among themselves or at an alliance but the subcontinent enjoyed peace, commerce and flourished in both art and sciences. But as the war of Crusade was being fought in the west, the caliphate in 12th century BC declared a crusade on India and called in Ghazwa-e-Hind. By the end of 13th century all the above mentioned places were under their rule. The whole subcontinent was almost under Turkish-Indian rule, known as Tughlaq dynasty. Even though the Vijaynagar empire was dominant in the southern part of India during this time period trade routes through the Silk road was cut off. Therefore closely guarded secrets like manufacturing of wootz steel might've been lost during this period and because of this reason. Now through out history we have seen same manufacturing techniques to be lost and found again (for example the recent technology of transistors), but due to successive conquest of the Indian subcontinent by the Mughal dynasty next in the 16th century which completely conquered the subcontinent of india, from modern day pakistan, afganistan to myanmar. Then the subcontinent was under British rule from 1757 to 1947 and some parts were under French and Portuguese rule. But there you go the speculative reasons why the craft of wootz steel was lost and also why it wasn't recovered. It wasn't recovered cuz by the time India was independent again, it was the freaking 21st century.
Certainly, these so called researchers will never utter a word or credit to Bharat where the Ukku was originally created way before 300 BC.. Hell, they don’t even know how to pronounce Ukku, that’s how they ended up calling it wootz..😂😂
@@ashwinkumarshet Thank you for bringing this to me. Even I wasn't aware of the word Ukku, since I never learnt any of the southern indian languages, or even Sanskrit. I'm going to do some further research on it and let you know if I come upon something new.
For the farriers AL your a legend
In Japan and a couple of other places, craftsmen who have developed a high level of mastery in certain areas of great cultural significance -- metalworking among them -- are designated as "living national treasures". They are the ones who insure the continuation of difficult art forms that lie at the core of the country's culture. Al, while he was still with us, must have been one such living treasure.Though wootz blades "don't mean jack" to American culture, he worked tirelessly over many years to unravel the secrets of the blades that were the delight of the Moorish world and the wonder of all other nations: an artist / blacksmith / philosopher; a treasure of our world's cultural heritage.
Thank you, Griffin. You captured Al's special qualities, and special contributions beautifully. We were lucky that we were able to complete this badly needed record of his work just weeks before he left this earth. The worlds of blacksmiths, knife makers, metallurgists, and cultural historians will be much better for it.
Rest in Peace Mr. Pendray. You are an amazing man.
Greetings from Croatia !!!
RIP Al...
With enough age you gain patience and wisdom and understanding and then put them all together andwhen you combine those with what you love you become a master
God bless and be with you Alfred Pendray.
Giant, true master, artisan with his heart in the craft. And seems to be a very nice person too.
I just stumped across this video from just watching related videos. I watched the video where Al had the ore for Jordan. I absolutely love this type of thing. It can be this to baking. Just watching master's at their craft. Knowledge that can't be thought in the classroom and some that can't be thought at all. Just seeing this gentleman's face light up when talking about this. There is zero doubt he loved doing what he did.
R.I.P Alfred Pendray .. your work hopefully dont been forget like the first time. Humans have to figure it out how it works several times in many things.
Thank you.
Alfred will be dearly missed...
A beautiful video. Be proud. It's magnificent.... and very touching. Thank you, Mr. Pendray.... and may you rest in peace.
All of this ❤
It's sad to hear this man has passed, he probably forgot more about about craft than most of us will ever learn.
I bought the book by Al and it wasnt an easily digestible read. Im going to have a few more goes to see how much didnt sink in the first time. There seems to be a community that believes because of phosphorus and sulfur contamination in the smelting process that wootz was inferior. I believe that by eliminating that contamination and adding Vanadium and I believe Molybdenum as well to develop the carbide tubes / tentracles in the heat / quenching cycles is where and when the magic happens. Carbides are amazing. I wont have a shop again for a few years unfortunately, but plan on setting another one up when I get reestablished. At that time Ill be perusing this in practice. Im always trying to expand my knowledge and this is something I am greatly interested in.
What was the book? I'd like to buy a copy
An absolutely remarkable man.
On the shoulders of giants, I work in gratitude.
I don't want this art of bladesmithing to disapear I want it to continue on.
This was just a very touching and beautiful movie. And I learned what I wanted to learn as well. Thank you. Thumbs up.
We're happy to hear how much you enjoyed it, Inge! Thank you.
What a Great Man
Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for capturing this.
You are very, very welcome. It was a privilege to spend the time with Al that I could.
Come to Tamil Nadu ,where first wootz steel made,real name as uruku
How I wish I am near and even a apprentice to learn about it.
Mr Pendray was an amazing man. RIP Mr Pendray......
PS: Thank you for bringing Wootz back to the modern world !
BRAVO !
We appreciate your feedback. And we agree; Al Pendray was one of a kind... He will be dearly missed...
Woots steel , originally ca!led Urukku originated in Tamilnadu.
I am a 70 year old chef and know the difference between cheap copy of Urukku called Damascus steel
Damascus was just a trading place in Iraq and not the mother of Wootz steel.
Some metallurgists from Damascus want to wear the crown of greatness on Iraqi Culture which is wrong.
I come from South India and will be visiting Madras to find out more with my close friend Retired Prof. of metallurgy IIT madras.
This is my cherished item on my Buckets list.
Using high carbon steel by Japanese went to Japan from Kancheepuram side forgers about 2000 years back along with Buddhism.
If any real forger interested in selfless quest of South Indian urukku steel , let me know on hkrtrivediatyahoodotcom.
I write this in all earnestness.
I believe that the ancient records do exist in palm leaf manuscripts.
I intend spending some quality time in Madras, Kanceepuram, Madurai and such places.
If you want to re ignite the original woots flame iN serious forgers hearts and not think of profiting , do let me know.
Thanks.
Chef Hemant Trivedi
I take it you haven't watched czcams.com/video/OP8PCkcBZU4/video.html yet.
@@wendygoerl9162
Really ?
I have seen it all and read about wootz as much there can be.
Jordanians cannot take away Indian achievements.
Damascus is in Syria, not Iraq.
write a book, if you have higher quality instructions it will probably sell to a niche.
Jordan, Damascus and Persia were the major trading partners of the then indian kings and wootz steel blades were exported to Persia to be hilted and decorated locally.
I have no right to say anything else but, respect, so much respect
Wonderful
thanks for the upload
Our pleasure! We hope you enjoyed it.
Wonderful!
I would absolutely love to have one of his scrap ingots. For no other reason than to just place on my mantle and look at it.
RIP Al
What a gentle and knowledgeable man.
Just wish he could have shown how the blade
Was quenched and hardened without losing the pattern?
I think I recall from another video that you dont actually quench to harden Woots. You build its hardness through thermal cycling and leave it at that. I dont know if it needs a final temper or not. I could have misunderstood though.
Edit: nope, I was wrong czcams.com/video/EVuB_0hxE3c/video.html shows you quench just like other high carbon steels.
@@jetblackstar You were right the first time: czcams.com/video/OP8PCkcBZU4/video.html
Never quench Wootz.
You don't fold it and you never quench it.
The secret of Damascus steel was lost because the smiths in India who were the original maker of this technique, were banned by the British Raj during their 200 yrs of rule so that they can take the credit for it. But they failed to mimic the technique, and so the skill was lost in time....
RIP Al, we will surely miss you!!!
No , wrong time period. The Indians had the ore (chance). others the technique(skill).. don't be a racist
@@stoppernz229 Indians had the skills and techniques in multiple areas like weaving, smelting etc. Before the British came, destroyed the local business, looted our techniques and forced their products on us....
U have a doubt on the Indian skills? Google "Ashoka's Piller in Qutub Minar" !!!
@@sabareesh129 The British did not loot your skills, the British were more technologically advanced. The indians were abjectly poor before the british built infrastructure in your country like railways etc. India had lost the secret of Damascus steel(if they ever had it)by the time the British arrived anyway so you're talking a load of clap trap.
I'll look at both your arguments with some facts. First look at where vanadium and iron mines are both present in India. Three places that has both vanadium and iron mines at the same place are Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha. Now we'll look at the time period of crusade wars, which happened between (1095 to 1571) AD. That's approximately 500 years. Crusades are wars fought at the name of religion. Now we'll look at what happened in these three places during this time frame. During this time i.e, from 9th to 11th century AD, most Indian dynasties were either at minor war among themselves or at an alliance but the subcontinent enjoyed peace, commerce and flourished in both art and sciences. But as the war of Crusade was being fought in the west, the caliphate in 12th century BC declared a crusade on India and called in Ghazwa-e-Hind. By the end of 13th century all the above mentioned places were under their rule. The subcontinent was almost under Turkish-Indian rule, known as Tughlaq dynasty. If you know anything about crusades and what follows after is forced religious conversions, destruction of the losing side's culture, their buildings and everything bad you can or can't imagine. (Jerusalem was captured in 673 AD, then destroyed and then built upon in Islamic standards. The grand library of Alexandria was burnt and destroyed by the second Caliph of Islam. Constantinople was destroyed by the muslims in 1473 which is in Istanbul.) Even though the Vijaynagar empire was dominant in the southern part of India during this time period trade routes through the Silk road was cut off. Therefore closely guarded secrets like manufacturing of wootz steel might've been lost during this period and because of this reason. Now through out history we have seen same manufacturing techniques to be lost and found again (for example the recent technology of transistors), but due to successive conquest of the Indian subcontinent by the Mughal dynasty next in the 16th century which completely conquered the subcontinent of india, from modern day pakistan, afganistan to myanmar. This was the biggest economy in the world from 16th to 18th century which controlled almost 24.5% of world economy. Then the subcontinent was under British rule from 1757 to 1947 and some parts were under French and Portuguese rule. Then started the colonials started sucking the country dry like my GF does me dry. Along with that around 4 million Indians were made into slaves and taken to Mauritius, Fiji and Caribbean islands for sugarcane farming, aka Slaves no one talks about. Around 1 million Indianswere deployed during WW1 in africa and middle east, some were made into slaves in british colonies in africa. Around 2.5 million Indian soldiers were deployed in WW2, in africa, middle east and europe. Most were used as "Khacchars" aka donkeys, used for carrying supplies and also used for expandable military tactics aka deployable shields (lol warzone). After the british left the gdp of the indian subcontinent undivided was a mere 2.4% of the total world gdp in 1947. This is a true example of what colonialism does to a colony. Even in 2020 India is a part of the common wealth system which a disgrace in my opinion. But there you go the speculative reasons why the craft of wootz steel was lost and also why it wasn't recovered. It wasn't recovered cuz by the time India was independent again, it was the freaking 21st century. {Next, the Martians will come and conquer India again, lmao}.
@@stoppernz229 🤣🤣 What a Joke... Britishers built the Infrastructure of Bharat🤣🤣. I can't stop laughing...... Also Yeah they were more advanced than us,that's why they r spend millions of Dollars into various scripts like this to rediscover it again.
Oo they don't looted us,that's why our GDP 24.4% in 1700 falls to 4% in 1950... I need your power man...How can you think like this and write shits....
He turned down a king....I love it haha just met this man's brother out here in Williston at my yard sale made a trade for some big files to turn into blades for a gun rack and that's how he got to telling us about his brother...I cannot believe living here I never heard his name...now I only been here 6 years but like....this is legendary shit. R.I.P
Nice work
Florida man solves mystery lost to time
RIP The roots of Wootz.
Wootz was made in ingots in India and exported to Arabia...the Europeans first encountered it there.... finally the British banned weapon making in India and.that laid the death nail.
no, Indians used up iron ore deposits which contained vanadium.
That's how the Wootz steal became a lost art.
ie, Indians didn't know the secret either.
@@davidjacobs8558 bullcrap. I come from Kerala, one of the historical sites where wootz steel was and is still being made. The other being Sri Lanka. The Indians as you called them do know the basic secrets, it is only the microscopic technological terminology that is alien to them. The ingots produced there were called Seric Iron by the Romans of Antiquity. They still manage to incorporate the vanadium infused wootz steel which when studied, showed consistent martensite structures.
@@godfathergtg Like at the time they did not know that there was Vanadium in it only that certain mines had the ore that would produce a pattern. They had no idea why. That's the reason for the microscopic technical terminology. Also there is a mine if Jordan as well that has a similar makeup. Probably from the same impact just a different piece.
czcams.com/video/ni06-u0b_gY/video.html look this up people
R.I.P
Hope there are some “Forged in Fire” fans here.
dill is very high is vanadium, i wonder what endemic plant was used. both dill and parsley are endemic to the region. both very high in vanadium.
I was gifted a large piece of Wootz that Al made this past summer by a master Smith here in Canada. Not sure if I can bring myself to use it. I just like looking at the billet.
That's amazing!
RIP
I think if we lose this technic again we will have to wait till the old man reincarnates to teach again
The question is can it cut through a rock and not get damaged or cut through falling silk
I think that it would be a good idea to make wootz Damascus cutlery and wootz Damascus pocket knives. Alfred Pendray could make a lot of money selling them.
I hope the knowledge is passed on to someone
We hope so, too - Mr. Pendray's passing was a great loss to the craftsmanship community.
People should stop confusing stuff with actual period damascus steel. It's only explainable by steel having properties given by nano particles or closely related science (carbide alignment or something like that in some instances). This has been theorized for ages, proven in one past test and in one recent study it was explained as having been due to a combination of a certain type of ore that was having particles aligned by a special finishing proccess, possible due to ore content. When the source of ore changed, the OP damascus steel couldn't be reproduced and over time the technique was lost because using it on regular ore gave no benifit. People simply didn't understand, it took both the specialized ore and the special finishing proccess. There's different ways to get something similar, such as using meteoric iron with nano particles which is naturally occuring or more modern methods. But if you want the actual real deal you have to go to a museum. Otherwise it's modern damscus, and there's a lot of junk out there that's garbage just being peddled for a cheap buck.
Oh, one more thing. I have said this to anyone who finds out I practice Blacksmithing who asks if I will shoe their horse. "All Farriers are Blacksmiths, very few Blacksmiths are Farriers." I'm not a Farrier. If you can watch a horse walking away from you and trim or shoe it to heal it's pain, or even take a foundered animal by properly done reverse shoeing and trimming to be, if not sound at least bring it to not having to be put down. Then you've seen a real Farrier.
David -- Thanks greatly for this note, for paying such attention to Al's work, and for pursuing similar work yourself. With Al gone (a great sadness to us, because he died only days before this film was completed), it warms our hearts every time we see his life so deeply appreciated.
if the king really cared he would come. this fucking sucks how few people will ever get it right
So it's basically silver steel?
This is how wootz steel disappeared:
czcams.com/video/ni06-u0b_gY/video.html
Hindutva propaganda! Arabs found own sources of iron ore, Al used iron ore from Jordan 87 miles from Damascus, very old mine. Since at least Saladin times (1100s).
@@HasanNassrallah Tamil wootz steel has been created for idols before the concept of Arabs even existed(oldest idol 1700bce) , p.s there is no hindutva in South India.
I wanna make a wootz family sword who do i talk to to get or go to for some woots ingots or even if experienced make the blade but i would pay for it...
Wootz swords are expensive. There are only a few smiths alive that can do it properly. Takes 6 hours just to make the puck. Then another 8 to heat cycle the stuff then another 8 to forge it into useable bars. Then at least 3 for a quality blade. In my shop alone that close to $5000 for one blade plus design and a sheath.
@@Camulus777 this is bullshit you obviously don't know what your are talking about ! the ONLY MAN WHO EVER CAME CLOSE TO THE REAL THING IS DEAD. !!!8 hrs to heat cycle!? it took Al a minimum of 6 heat cycles and the cooling down period was going on all thru the night so basically 6 days of heat cycles to get the right iron crystals going...you probably make pattern welding and call it Damascus like all the other frauds out there !
@aurel wink do not listen to this clown he is talking shit !
@@Camulus777 dont forget the 36 hrs to "seal" the wootz so it can be worked.
Original Wootz possibly contained elements from meteorites.
Hate to break it to you but all steel does. All of the Iron found on earth is from meteorites. There are just some places where these impacts contained other metals that are far more uncommon this close or this far from the sun.
To who has the attention of Damascus steel, I have ways of experience that was made by the sword of Damascus, who was his desire to fight this adventure, do not hesitate to contact me.
rip Al. now these people on youtube need to learn what he has to create real damascus steel instead of this fake stuff thats been spreading around.
Thanks greatly for the kind remarks. This is why it was such a pleasure for us to get to know Al, and to watch him work.
That "fake stuff" is actually "Pattern Welded".
KronosVasilias yeah fake wootz steel is what they are after. Pattern welding and damascus is two totally different things. If you want a quality blade research wootz steel and quit being a pussy. Otherwise this fake bs "damascus" "now days stuff" is worthless for a quality blade. It's called science, study please.
KronosVasilias if you didn't listen to the whole thing wootz damascus is the real fucking deal and this pattern welding now days is fucking bullshit.
@@KronosVasilias A lot of it is. Sometimes somebody gets some natural marbling in the metal--but not quite the same as Wootz Damascus.
Why do you keep saying crusaders got them back from persians? Persians had nothing to do with the crusades, crusades were fought against Arabs and Turks.
There's a lot of historical nonsense in this, unfortunately. Literally the very first sentence on screen is wrong.
the real damascus. i think people should call it what it is, crucible steel, wootz damascus. nothing at all in common with pattern welded, pattern welded is just that a couple of different types of steel stacked one on top of the other and stuck onto a rod to be heated folded and repeated
"Panday" means blacksmith in the Phils. Sounds like his last name
What a fun tidbit. Thanks for sharing this.
"Pande" is Indonesian word for blacksmith.. Im sure his mean to become a blacksmith from the begining.. Hahha
This is bullshit. Wootz blades are not some secret that nobody could figure out. That's a modern myth. They just weren't that good.
Oh ok, well I guess that settles it
Compared to European bloomery steel in their day, the "Damascus" swords were superb blades. Yes, modern tool steel is "better" in practically every respect, apart from the striking visual, but THAT IS NOT THE POINT. If it were, then it would be manufactured in massive quantities so economy of scale would make a garage bladesmith getting his hands on a billet, a reality and not a dream.
Yes, modern myth. But ancient reality. Now we can be pretty sure how it was done, and duplicate it at least to a very close degree. Pendray and Vorhoeven made a huge contribution to the science and history of metallurgy.
Haha it would have been so nice if rather than send a Smith, King Abdullah visited Al. He seems like such a lovely guy, what a claim to fame that would be, rediscovered Damascus and made an Arabian king come to him to see it. King Abdullah is also nice from what I've seen of him.