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Jake Wilson





Joined: 08 Sep 2009

Posts: 11

PostPosted: Wed 07 Oct, 2009 6:07 pm    Post subject: blade hardness         Reply with quote

Hello all.

I have a few thoughts and i am curious for anyone's opinion. It's always good to draw out violent opinions!!! I have read many posts on many different websites and I see things like "51 HRC, I wouldn't use a sword like that, it's useless". It seems that period blades had low hardness levels based on research, inconsistent steel composition, unknown composition for the maker, slag inclusions, etc... yet these blades were most surely useful to their owners. With composition/quenching/tempering being a black art in the day, I wonder which I would prefer to take into a fight. I think I'd rather settle for a slightly softer sword that wasn't going to shatter at the first contact with a shield. Even a nicely annealed blade will take off a limb. Granted, today with modern science, temp controlled ovens, and steel that has a known quality and composition, a quenched and tempered or austempered blade is ideal, (austempered I think is best actually) but there seems to be a lot of "rockwell snobbery" floating around.

No offense meant to anyone, I am genuinely interested in the various opinions, as I have been known to be wrong...yes, it does happen from time to time.
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Chad Arnow
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PostPosted: Wed 07 Oct, 2009 6:40 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Have you checked out Craig Johnson's excellent article? Sword Blade Hardness: A look at the current research
Happy

ChadA

http://chadarnow.com/
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Jake Wilson





Joined: 08 Sep 2009

Posts: 11

PostPosted: Wed 07 Oct, 2009 7:41 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Yep, that's part of what got me thinking about this topic. We are so far removed from the days these weapons were used, it's hard to even understand the needs of the medieval sword user.
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Timo Nieminen




Location: Brisbane, Australia
Joined: 08 May 2009
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Reading list: 1 book

Posts: 1,504

PostPosted: Thu 08 Oct, 2009 2:33 am    Post subject: Re: blade hardness         Reply with quote

Jake Wilson wrote:
I think I'd rather settle for a slightly softer sword that wasn't going to shatter at the first contact with a shield.


One historical solution was to carry 2 swords. Very samurai! Egerton, IIRC, notes this as being done in India, with one sword being hard but potentially brittle, and the spare being deliberately softer. Many years ago, I "discussed" (via an intermediary) this with a sinologist, who mentioned that it was a known Chinese practice to carry two swords, and one was a yang sword, the other yin, which suggested the possibility of similar choice of hardness, but he didn't know of any testing that had been done.
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