In the most recent video of Man at Arms: Reforged they did the Green Destiny sword from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which is pretty much just a Chinese Jian. (Video here: http://youtu.be/ObYP1jTJ9MM)
For the sword, they decided to use 1095 and 15n20 for their steels for pattern welding. Obviously, the two steels are used together often because they weld together very easily while at the same time producing a very visible pattern after acid etching. However from what I understand neither steel is a great sword steel; 1095 is too brittle for larger blades because of its higher carbon content.
My question is did they just forge a really nice looking and well made wall hanger, or is there something in the pattern welding or heat treatment that makes the steel combination useable for swords?
They're just making it look pretty
>>29726805
Amateur Blacksmith / Metallurgist here
Back in the old days, iron was smelted in a primitive kind of forge called a bloomery; effectively you had a bunch of layered iron ore and coal / charcoal; and over many hours (sometimes days) of forcing air through said bloomery, you'd get a heap of 'sponge iron' at the bottom. This was then worked to make an ingot of iron. Sometimes, you'd get ingots of exceptional quality, which were early steels. Medieval ironworkers knew nothing about alloying, or how carbon influenced the formation of steels, it was pretty hit or miss.
Steels of that time period ranged from passable tool steel to effectively wrought iron, so when a bladesmith found a piece of good steel, they'd layer it on top of pieces of iron, folding it together to give them more to work with / homogenize the piece of metal.
This is how pattern welding came to be, the etched patterns are purely cosmetic.
More info than you probably want > http://www.oakeshott.org/metal.html
1095 and 15n20 are both blade steels, honestly if tempered properly they're likely fine for light combat use. Man at Arms swords are more for show though.
Keep in mind anything made now is going to be lightyears better in quality than most swords available in the Middle Ages / Renaissance, 500 years of technology tends to do that.
>>29727145
Not op, but that was pretty informative.
Even though I knew most of that stuff, it's still nice to hear additional info.
I've seen the bloomery technique in action. Always wanted to try it out for myself. But where the fuck am I going to get raw iron ore?
1095 is fine, the heat treatment is more important than what's in it, and it being properly tempered will make it just fine for a sword. Baltimore knife and sword are a sword/weapon making company, they're going to know their heat treatment and know what would make for a good sword
Some of the stock material they use would be stuff that I wouldn't want to use as a proper sword material, like the scissor blade made out of hundreds of scissors forge welded together, but the stuff for MAA is mostly just used once then put on display, with exception of that pre-dragonslayer sword which is on their website as something you can have made for you
>>29727145
>1095 and 15n20 are both blade steels, honestly if tempered properly they're likely fine for light combat use. Man at Arms swords are more for show though.
That's what I was looking for, thank you. Basically it's fine as long as it's something for slicing some bamboo and water jugs in the backyard, not if you expect to survive the post-apocalyptic landscape on your blade alone.
>>29728554
Bamboo is considered a hard target, and could ruin a sword if you have improper edge alignment
Not as much of a problem with a spring tempered blade as it shouldn't take a set unless they've been heavily used against hard targets, but it's still a possibility.
I felt that this build was done kinda half assed. They really showcased the jade carving but the actual sword itself ( with the lame resists instead of the engravings of dragons.) they didn't show anything about how they did the guard section that they secured the jade to.
>>29726805
Pattern welding is done for cosmetic reasons usually, heat treating is v v important however. You usually do a heat treat right after shaping, this is to harden the blade and make it Non magnetic. It's p difficult to master tho, if you don't dip it long enough and it'll be too soft, dip it too long and it'll be yo brittle and it'll crack
>>29727145
>Keep in mind anything made now is going to be lightyears better in quality than most swords available in the Middle Ages / Renaissance, 500 years of technology tends to do that.
i know thats true for the metallurgy but wasnt there lost knowledge on balancing swords
like youve got an antique that handles great and a repro that looks alike and weighs the same but feels like shit
or is that only applicable to cheap swords
>>29728800
Cheap swords
There are plenty of makers who do 1:1 recreations of museum finds or make swords that would be plausible for whatever time period they're basing their sword off of
>>29728800
>>29728844
A lot of the lost knowledge is more about how swords and other weapons were used.
That just leads into the reason for why things are a certain way.
>>29727145
Let's say I wanted a sword that was 3'5" tip to pommel, that would see a lot of use. What kinda steel would be the most appropriate for that?
What the fuck is everyone talking about? 1095 is one of the better high carbon steels out there...company's make survival knives out of them all the fucking time...I mean fucking esee knives, some of the best hard use "survival knives" are made from 1095, the Becker bk series, 1095 is a great steel you bunch of plebs.
>>29730550
Any sort of high carbon steel would be fine, I believe albion uses 6150, which would be one of the better choices.
But 5160, 1060, 1075, 1095, all are good steels
The heat treatment is what matters for the most part
>>29730727
People are talking about swords. 1095 is more brittle than say, 5160, which is a problem with a big blade that's going to suffer hard impacts and the like.
