The Forging of the Sword

A sword is a long edged piece of metal, designed for cutting, thrusting an slashing. This fact is the same throughout the world. Though the intent and physics of swordsmanship has barely changed at all through the history of the sword between cultures and era’s, the techniques themselves vary due to changes in sword design and purpose.

The word sword comes from the Old English word Sweord, which cognates to Old High German Schwert, meaning “wounding tool” from a Proto-Indo-European *swer – “to wound, to hurt”.

A sword comprises of two parts, the blade and the hilt. The blade has one to two edges used for cutting and striking and the point for thrusting. The scabbard is the protective cover used to keep the sword when not in use. The scabbard has been made from many different materials over the years, for example wood, leather, as well as some metal ones made from perhaps brass or steel.

But how are and were, swords actually made I hear you ask. Well sadly, or perhaps not so, there is an awful lot of debate on how swords were made.

From what we do know, it was not as simple as pouring molten steel into a cast. A person who makes swords is called a sword smith or blade smith, it is a highly skilled job. A black smith makes much more simple everyday objects such as hammer, axes and spears, where as a sword smith’s job is extremely complex and ever changing to suit each customer. A sword is made by passing a block of iron between a hot coal furnace, fuelled by bellows and an anvil. Once the iron is red hot it is placed onto the anvil and hammered repeatedly and then reheated, this process is repeated until the required length, width and thickness is achieved. This whole process is very time consuming to say the least, as you may imagine, but this is not the final stage.

After the steel has reached its desired stage, it is then put through a further heating treatment of quenching to harden, and tempering to soften, creating a harder finish. It was vitally important that a sword was able to bend under pressure but then return to original state. Also to be very sturdy and strong, so as to make it possible to have the sharpest possible edge and point, so this process is very important. Tempering means to reheat at a low temperature to relax the steel. The longer the temperature is applied or the hotter it is, the more the metal will be relaxed mean a tougher yet softer blade. The process of tempering actually rearranges the molecules in the steel to make it tough, and soft.