One of my stranger interests — fueled, no doubt, by seeing Highlander and various Hollywood swashbucklers in my younger days — is swords. I love a well-choreographed swordfighting scene, and the weapons themselves are often (though not always) beautiful pieces of craftsmanship that verge on genuine art. (I’m talking about actual historical swords now, not the flimsy “decorator” models you can buy for 50 bucks at the state fair.)

If you start to explore the history of swordmaking, it doesn’t take long before you run across a mention of Damascus steel. Blades made of this substance could supposedly do things you routinely see in movies but which seem too far-fetched to happen in real life, such as cutting a piece of silk in mid-air, or slicing through other, lesser swords or even stone without losing their edge. The knowledge to make true Damascus swords was lost centuries ago, and today their rumored abilities have the air of legend about them. Like all good legends, they make for good stories, but they’re pretty hard to believe in the bright sunshine of everyday life.

Except some researchers think they may have figured out the truth behind the legends, and that truth has a surprisingly 21st Century quality to it. According to an article over at National Geographic.com, German researchers have discovered bundles of carbon nanotubes and nanowires in a Damascus blade made in the 17th Century. These tiny molecular structures are known to be immensely resilient; the scientists believe that layers of them in a blade with softer steel in between results in a unique combination of strength and flexibility. In other words, the stories about Damascus swords could be true.

There are skeptics, of course, who believe that the nanostructures are probably not unusual in well-made blades, and that modern steels far outperform the ancient Damascus metal. It’s an interesting finding, nevertheless; I’ve heard of nanotubes, of course, but I’ve been under the impression that they were entirely synthetic and only recently created. Maybe those ancient craftsmen knew more than we give them credit for, eh?