Weapon Metallurgy: History and Shoptalk (swords, etc...)

A couple more that are more barbarous, the big seax was my third knife , ended up taking about a year and a bit. The other ended up being a pirate esque blade.

Thanks , I had a greater vision for that one but my skulls went a little Aztecish on me when carving them. I had wanted them to be more like skulls piled upon each other.

Some Oakeshott Type XV swords, and also what looks to be a falchion. 

Is this picture from the Musee de l'Armee in Paris Kemp? I ask because I have seen a reproduction of this by Maciej Kopciuch that I would love to have made. When other projects are finished and I have some discretionary funds available! Decided it was time to put together a semi-historic soft kit for early 14th century/Gunderman/LoTR/Got. artofswordmaking.com/gallery/western-european-sword-early-14thc Here is the link to Maciej's site and the sword.

Thank you for the reply. Definitely some nice blades in this picture.

Here is an interesting article on the use of Damascus in today's blade market, and some of the misconceptions in terminology, such as pattern welded and folded blades passed on as 'Damascus'. What I like about the article is that it does mention that the layering technique was used to evenly distribute the inherent impurities and minimize weak points in some of the historical blades due to starting smelted steel which may have had impure materials in it. The writer further goes on to say that there is no doubt that Japanese made Nihonto are 100% functional, but that it came down more to the skill of the smiths and the level of effort put into the blade making process than the folding itself. 

www.sword-buyers-guide.com/damascus.html

I agree with some of the points raised in the article. Of course, badly made folded steel blades with bad welds, air pockets and overly large grain sizes from bad heat treats are going to produce poor quality weapons, but that is not to say that a finely made pattern welded blade would produce a highly efficient sword that would hold its own against the best of modern mono steel blades. 

I think any carefully designed blade, regardless if it was made from the appropriate modern shock absorbent spring steel from a leaf spring, high carbon steel or pattern welded/folded steel 'Damascus' would function well as a sword if it was made by a proficient and experienced bladesmith with a good understanding of the processes involved.