The legendary Damascus Blade was regarded as lost technology until recently. These curved swords, (scimitars) used by the Muslim army occupying Jerusalem in the Dark Ages were greatly feared, yet admired in secret by the Christian Crusaders. Knights paid good money to collect Damascus blades from slain Moors for their own trophies. A team of metallurgy scientists from Stanford claim to have found the secret of how these legendary blades were forged: mainly from using carbon and hammering methods to form a superplastic metal. The rediscovered process promises better toolmaking and composite material manufacture using metals
