SWORDS FROM THE DRESDEN ARMORY In the last century ...

BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
hammer mills which were worked by waterpower-a
system developed in the thirteenth
century. The result was wroughtiron,
which was placed in small closed crucibleswith
just enough carbon-pieces of wood
or green leaves-to make steel. Even today
special steels are manufactured by the
crucible process which produces the steel
of "quality." However, it was only the
most skilled mediaeval craftsman who
could make a homogeneous and reliable
quality of steel, for he could not control
with certainty the carburizing of the metal
which necessitated successive operations of
welding and reheating; in fact it was not
known until 1781 that the properties of
steel were dependent on the percentage of
carbon present. Another method of making
the blade-the cementation process-was
to use natural steel with a block of malleable
iron in the middle, which made it more
flexible. This composite piece-hammeredout
bars of wrought-iron could also be
used-was heated in a charcoal fire and
then worked out into shape. It made the
blade a soft and malleable core surrounded
by a jacket of steel capable of taking a hard
and springy temper. The production of
shades of temper is considered a fine art.
It requires a certain amount of patient
perseverance which few who have been
brought up at the desk can appreciate. By
extremely sudden cooling, such as quenching
in water or oil, steel retains the structure
which resulted from the temperature
which it had at the moment before the
quenching. It is said that the ancient
swordsmiths usually tempered the blades
at night in order to distinguish in the darkness
the exact color of the heated steel
when dipping it into the water. The steel is
then tempered, or "toughened," by being
heated and quenched again, thus making
it a trifle less hard but tougher. The blade
was next ground but not polished, and
passed along to undergo its tests.
The blades that bend round the body as a
girdle, springing back perfectly straight, are
curious, but not so desirable as a blade
with greater resisting power in giving
"point." For thrusting, a blade must be
rigid. A good blade will bend so as to reduce
the length in the proportion of about
one inch and a half to a foot. The point
was thrust against a thick iron plate without
turning or breaking it. Our blades were
put to a similar test, polished, hilted, and
then sent to fulfil their mission for the
Electors of Saxony.
STEPHEN V. GRANCSAY.
58