I came across this site the other day http://www.vikingrune.com/2009/01/viking-swords-ulfberht-fakes/ whitch says that Ulfberht swords were forged from crusible steel imported from the east. has anyone here ever heard of this before?

that is incorrect. if Ulfbhert swords were made of crucible steel they would have wave patters like on wootz blades. this guy could be confusing pattern welded with damascened blades, but Ulfbherts were not pattern welded.

we even have references from Arab smiths that say european blades were made differently than local crucible swords
(see, the sword in anglo saxon england)

i just read that, there is a whole lot wrong with that article.

Ulfbhert swords were not Scandinavian, they are from the rhine land.

low carbon content does not mean fake

Afghani crucible steel was not used to make european blades.

the Afghani didn't even use Afghani steel, they used indian crucible steel

there are counterfeit Ulfbhert and Ingelrii swords, but they are identified by spelling errors and different inlay patters

As Sean Belair states, that article has errors. He's summed it up well.

Sean Belair wrote:

Afghani crucible steel was not used to make european blades. the Afghani didn't even use Afghani steel, they used indian crucible steel there are counterfeit Ulfbhert and Ingelrii swords, but they are identified by spelling errors and different inlay patters

Interestingly, there are examples of some European swords made of wootz that were created from imported cakes of the material. It isn't at all common and even with that was mostly limited to earlier times (Roman period) than Viking/Medieval swords, though I believe there are later southern European sword blades made of this material..

There is an example of a sword marked Ingelrii that may be made of the material, but until it's properly analyzed we don't know. It could be piled construction and unusually corroded to have the surface pattern of wootz--perhaps even intentionally as a means to almost "counterfeit" the look. I believe it's seen a few different auctions and was last sold by Peter Finer.

Thanks Sean, you pretty much just confirmed what I was already thinking. I just thought I'd bring the article the peoples attention.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...words+fake
Craig Johnson said some interesting stuff about crusible steel in viking blades here.