Posted: Thu 07 Aug, 2014 8:54 am Post subject: Hammering iron or steel cold
Hi Henrik
I think Pleiner mentions it in his book some. I know there are some references to it in older literature but I would be leery of much written before Tylecote. The problem with the idea of hammering the edges is it is work hardening the material (increasing the stresses between the grains) probably a carry over from working bronze. I am not sure if it really works on iron. If there is phosphorous or carbon present it will do some hardening in a sense but only by increasing the stress and the possibility of cracking or breaking under use.
There where some guys that used to make the rounds on the ren faire circuit in the US claiming they where "packing" the edges by working it cold and making the steel denser but that is not actually possible.
I heard the average village blacksmith at that time simply couldn't temper a long blade equally. Instead of one or two hardened part and some soft parts, with the cold hammering they became an almost hard edge on fhe whole blade.
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