Just got back about an hour ago.
Visited a sword factory. All stainless steel blades. The production manager tried telling me the blades were made from premium steel, but then I told him a thing or 2 about steel and he just shut up. Still, he was under the impression I was planning on exporting loads of blades to the UK, so he let me look around the plant and see how they do things.
The blades are cut out of stainless steel sheet , ground to shape then fit out with mostly brass fittings. Some of the knife handles looked to be of quality wood, but just a plain shame about the blade material . Most of the swords were blunt, the smaller blades and knives were sharp.
I have to say the grinding on a lot of the smaller blades was excellent , all done on a belt grinder.
Then we looked around for proper smiths. Many smiths making farming tools but none doing any swords or quality knives. Came across one smith who used to make knives till the prodcution plants put him out of business. He makes pliers and other such tools now.
We had a good chat about stainless steel and carbon steel . We also discussed selective hardening and tempering of knife and sword blades. He knew what he was talking about. If I can find some decent steel I'm gonna take it to him and see what he can do.
So all in all not a total waste of a trip, though it is very sad to see what was once a centre of swordmaking has become mostly a centre of mass produced crap , to put it bluntly (pun intended)
"If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish,
What polishing might the Mirror of the Heart require"
Sad, really sad Its a shame that even some people who make swords, dont appreciate them or take the time and make the effort to produce them properly. Same goes for Toledo, which was one of the best sword-production centres in the Medieval/ early renaissance world. Now, all thats produced there is crap.
Fortunately, some places with sword making heritage have lived up to their historical standards, like Damascus, or Al-Jouf (not much of a production centre, you get the picture)
yes, I must get out to Damascus one day, God Willing. Also Bukhara....may even find something interesting in Rajasthan in India. At least I can cross Wazirabad off my list now.
"If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish,
What polishing might the Mirror of the Heart require"
Its a shame that even some people who make swords, dont appreciate them or take the time and make the effort to produce them properly. Same goes for Toledo, which was one of the best sword-production centres in the Medieval/ early renaissance world. Now, all thats produced there is crap.
