Wootz_steel Wootz steel is a steel characterized by a pattern of bands or sheets of micro carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix. It was developed in India around 300 BC. The word wootz may have been a mistranscription of wook, an anglicised version of urukku the word for steel in Tamil or ukku, the word for steel in Kannada, Telugu and many other southern Indian languages.