Originally Posted by roshan

I would argue that the best weaponry in the world was Indian and Persian weaponry. This is because they were made of the best steel in the world - wootz(damascus)! Wootz was some of the best steel because it was largely mined in places like India which has great deposits of pure steel. During the making of the steel ingots, wood was used to insert carbon into the blades. The carbon made the steel unusually strong and sharp amongst giving it other properties. Wootz had around 2% carbon, sometimes even higher, while carbon content in steels from other parts of the world was nowhere even near 1%.