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The Blade Register

European swords, described entry by entry

Steel and forging: what a blade is made of

A sword is a heat treatment wrapped in a shape. This section covers the material and the process: how iron and steel were actually produced before the industrial era, how blades were assembled out of pieces of it, and how quenching and tempering decide whether the finished object keeps an edge or snaps.

Entries in this section

10 of 21 entries All twenty-one entries
  1. Etched surface of a pattern welded blade photographed in raking light, showing herringbone bands formed by twisted rods along the centre of the blade and a plain welded edge beside them
    FRG-01

    Pattern welding, and why the pattern appears

    Rods of different iron and steel welded, twisted and drawn out, so the joins show as a pattern once the surface is etched. A construction method, not an alloy.

    Period
    c. 200 to 1000
    Type
    Technique
  2. A cut and polished crucible steel ingot beside a broken clay crucible, the polished face showing the coarse crystalline structure of high carbon cast steel
    FRG-02

    Crucible steel, wootz and the watered pattern

    Iron melted in a sealed pot, cast as an ingot at 1.0 to 2.0 per cent carbon. The watered pattern comes from carbide bands inside the metal, not from welded layers.

    Period
    Mid first millennium to 1900
    Type
    Material
  3. A glowing sword blade held vertically above an open quench tank in a dark forge, the steel orange along its whole length and vapour rising from the oil below
    FRG-03

    Hardening and tempering: the four heats

    Hard enough to hold an edge, tough enough not to break. The two demands pull against each other and the heat treatment is where they are settled.

    Period
    Antiquity to the present
    Type
    Technique
  4. A suburban Melbourne level crossing at dusk, boom gates down and a train passing, shot from the footpath with the road queue receding into the frame.
    FRG-04

    Roads, level crossings and the Australian project cycle

    How Australian road projects move from business case to opening, why Melbourne removes level crossings, and what tunnels and desalination plants taught the

    Period
    Australia, 1990 to today
    Type
    Practice
  5. A dewatered tailings stack seen from a low ridge at late afternoon, the surface a pale grey crust with shallow erosion channels, a single discharge pipe crossing the foreground and a line of survey
    FRG-05

    Tailings, thickened: what the term covers

    A plain reading of thickened tailings, paste and filtered deposition, and the public documents that govern them, for non-specialist readers.

    Period
    Today
    Type
    Reference
  6. A wide interior view of a state industrial development office counter in Bhubaneswar, a stack of printed clearance files on the desk under flat overhead lighting, a clerk's hands sorting pages in the
    FRG-06

    Odisha industrial approvals: policy, portal, timelines

    Odisha's Industrial Policy Resolution 2022, the GO SWIFT single-window portal, and the approval timelines and fees that apply to industrial projects in the

    Period
    Odisha, India, 2022 to today
    Type
    Reference
  7. A cutting table in a small workshop, a folded length of indigo twill beside a steel ruler and a pair of shears, raking afternoon light from a side window across the fabric surface.
    FRG-07

    Technical textiles and the sword: shared material problems

    How technical textile specification, from fibre to finishing, maps onto the material questions sword makers and students of blades already ask.

    Period
    Today
    Type
    Materials
  8. A glass-fronted snack and drink vending machine standing against a tiled wall in a Dutch petrol station forecourt at dusk, its chilled cabinet lit from within, shot straight on from about three
    FRG-08

    Snack and drink vending: a field note

    A register note on snack and drink vending as a trade: machine families, site selection, food safety, payments and maintenance, with Dutch practice as the

    Period
    Netherlands, today
    Type
    Guide
  9. A high-bay pallet racking aisle at floor level, one reach truck parked with forks lowered, yellow guard rail separating a marked pedestrian walkway, cold overhead lighting from roof-mounted LED
    FRG-09

    Warehouse Storage and Handling: A Register Note

    A plain reference note on industrial storage and handling: racking choices, forklift checks, pedestrian routes, barcode and RFID tracking, and automation.

    Period
    Today
    Type
    Practice
  10. A row of PEM electrolyser stacks inside a bright industrial hall, stainless steel pipework running overhead, late afternoon light through high clerestory windows, medium wide shot from floor level.
    FRG-10

    Hydrogen energy: a technical primer

    Hydrogen energy from electrolyser efficiency to pipeline blending: a plain register of figures, safety practice and offtake structures for project holders.

    Period
    Today
    Type
    Reference

From bloom to blade, in six stages

6 stages

Every blade before the industrial era went through the same sequence, and each stage constrains the next. A poor bloom cannot be rescued by good forging, and good steel can still be ruined in the last ten minutes at the grinding wheel.

What a blade is actually made of, from the furnace to the finished edge.
StageWhat comes outWhat it is good for
SmeltingA bloom: a spongy lump of iron and slagNothing yet, it has to be consolidated
ConsolidationA bar of wrought iron, with slag stringersBodies, cores, tangs
CarburisingSteel, hardenable if above about 0.3 % carbonEdges
ForgingA blade blank with its profile and distal taperThe shape, decided before any heat treatment
Heat treatmentA hard edge and a body that bends rather than breaksThe performance of the blade
Grinding and polishingEdge geometry, fullers, surfaceThe last third of the work, and the most easily ruined

The single most useful number in the whole sequence is the carbon content. Below roughly 0.3 per cent, steel will not harden by quenching, which is why early blades have welded on edges and why so much of the craft is about putting the good metal in the right place.

Three things that are repeated and are not true

  • "Folded a thousand times." Each fold doubles the layer count, so ten folds give 1024 layers. Folding beyond a certain point evens out the carbon and then starts losing it.
  • "Damascus steel was pattern welded." Historical Damascus is crucible steel, one homogeneous ingot. Pattern welding joins separate pieces. Both make patterns; they are not the same thing.
  • "The fuller is a blood groove." It lightens and stiffens the blade. There is no suction to break.