#maker bless adjustment layers for a real glow up

[swimmingtrunks]

Oh Dread Wolf, What Big Lies You Have

[fireminer]

Writing advice: Forging a sword

Let me say upfront that this list is meant to fit a wide variety of settings, from high-magic to low-magic. And it is NOT the ONLY which you can make an awesome sword. In fact, your character can simply pick up any tree branch laying on the side, enchanting it with a multitude of spells, and there you have something which can take on the likes of Dragons.

What I am about to say is, however, gathered from my real-life experience (as both a sword affectionado and amateur blacksmith,) mixed with a very low amount of fantastic elements. As I said above, what listed here can be put in almost any campaign and would not look completely out-of-place. You can expand the list, or choose to remove elements from it, it depends on how you are going to play.

So, let’s us begin

--

I. MATERIALS & TOOLS

- Steel: Meteorite ore gives that “Oomph”, but if it is not possible I recommend Magnetite (Fe₃O₄). In some cases, you may want to have a sword which was made from several types of steel (more on that bellow.)

But Ore is not the only type of steel you can use. Recycling steel is something which blacksmiths have been doing since the dawn of their carrer. Any steel, even those have rusted, will do as long as it is homogenous (made from one type of steel only) such as a hovel or a pot (cast iron is fine, too.)

Sometime recycling steel also has spiritual meanings. The most obvious one is scourging the battlefield for broken blades, but you can really made a spin on this idea - for example, a sword which is a tribute to a god can make use of the steel from the nails which are taken from a shrine dedicated to that same god

Also, never use stainless steel, unless you’re looking for a knife. Use steel with high carbon content

- Coal: Good old fat coal, or if coal is not available then use charcoal, which is normally formed by slow-burning wood or (sometimes) bones. If you want to add some more “Oomph”, considering the coal is fossifulized from the remains of an ancient magical forest or bones of magical beasts.

[Unconfirmed sources tell that in the pre-Medieval time, people did use the bones of their ancestors/enemies, not as the primary fuel source, but for the carbon content gained when burning the bones while smelting the metal.]

- Tools: The older the tools are, the more prestigious they carry (and, work like the extension of an arm.) If possible, then have a dragon to substitute for the furnace (so as to raise the temperature as high as possible, therefore pushing out more impurities from the iron during smelting), and let a spirit possessing you and guiding your hammer hand

- Steel types: Hagane/Shigane/Kawagane (edge steel/core steel/skin steel used in the making of Katanas,) Crucible, or Damascus (essentially a variation of Crucible) steel. You can see that these types of steel all consist of several layer of steel of different strength, which gives the sword both strength, sharpness, and flexibility.

Steel-working in the ancient days was also more advanced than we thought. For example, the 2nd century Romans used naturally occurring metal alloys (Molybdenum from Dacian iron ore) as cores, with soft iron sheathing. It was basically a sandwich forge-welded together with a hard edge and tough exterior

- Wood: For the grips, blacksmiths has always favor straight-grain woods (oak, ash, etc with teak the most expensive of them) for easy shaping and durability (it’s much harder to break a straight-grain wooden stick when you put it on your knees and break)

- Enchantment: Ofuda or any other types of paper talisman to wrap around the still-hot ingot (Japanese steelmakers still do this today.) Having a priest (or any supernatural entity) blessing everything also help, too

II. STEPS TO FORGE A SWORD

- Smelting the ore into steel (or buy already-made steel)

- Drawing out the shape of the blade: Heating the ingot till it is red, hammering it, reheating the ingot again, hammering again. Repeat the process until you have the basic shape of the sword in your hand. Then it is all about grinding which you create the profile of the blade, which includes its point and edges. All engraving should be done by now

- Hardening the blade: Heating the blade till it glow, then quenching it in a liquid. Please note that curve swords (like the katana) only become curved after they have been hardening

- Tempering the blade: Heating the sword (at a temperature lower than the temperature which the Hardening happened), then quenching it again. Repeat the process for several times. This is one stage where the skill and experience of the swordsmith is invaluable. It takes trained hands and sharp eyes to understand the properties of the metal

- Finishing the sword: Polishing and applying finish to the blade, then adding hilt, guard, pommel, etc to the sword.

III. TIPS

- Metalworkers were rarely specialized in the way we think of having a "job" today. The local blacksmith was also the dentist, not because he had medical training, but because he had tools. Metalworkers often had a toe dipped in alchemy, which is not surprising since they appear to transmute "dirt" into metal and then tools

- Choose the type of blade: Look online for “Oakeshott Typology” and see for yourself what kind of blade you are going to make. Stranger types of blades, such as the Flamberge, also work but you must first think of the setting which your characters stuck in. Is it a period where full-body armor prevails? Are you more likely to fight against men-at-arms, thugs, or knights, etc.

I notice that the most commonly used blade style is a hybrid Viking sword/Arming sword style with little taper and a wide fuller (in practice, however, depend on the sword you may have to adjust the size of the fuller.) Artists tend to exaggerate the width of the blade, though.

- Sharpness: European longswords were never much sharper than a butterknife. They didn't need to be sharp to cleave armor and limbs, and a sharp blade will be more likely to warp, chip, and shatter. Rapiers and other quillion-hilted swords take this to the next step – as they are mainly used to thrush and lunge, the edge are left blunt

- Hardness:

The hardness of the steel can be determined when you are grinding and polishing it: The more spark it creates, the harder the steel is. Normally, with swords which just have been quenched, you will have the outermost layer of steel quite soft. You must grind the edge down so as the now-hardened edge can reveal itself

- Fuller: Depend on the type of the blade, the number, length and width of fuller will change. You should do some research first before coming to your decision

- Folding: The primary purpose of folding the ingot is to beat out the impurities. The "wavy" pattern on Damascus swords are only a byproduct of folding. That said, never fold the steel over 5 times, unless you're really sure what you're doing. Long short story, the molecular structure of steel is messed up so bad it can no longer be used to draw out a sword

- Tempering: Use either oil or water for tempering, but in any case DO NOT use blood. Medieval sources tell that blacksmith once quenched their blades in rendered lamb's fat

If you use a single type of steel for your blade construction (most likely the case with modern steel. Most of the “backyard knife/sword/etc making videos you see on Youtube are actually like this, with the maker traced their sword on a sheet of steel and then cut it out), quenching the blade in oil will make the blade lost its curve. The opposite happened with cruxible steel, as the sword curves more when quenched with oil (for example, the shape of the Katana is formed like so.)

- Blade decoration: The sky is your limit, but remembers that any carving must be done before the blade is tempered, and even then the blade can still be weakened if not properly treated. Inlaying gold or silver, however, is done after tempering but before polishing. If you want to inscribe something after tempering, use acid and stencil. DO NOT attempt to use a chisel on a finished blade

A lot of times gold, silver, ruby, and other precious materials have magical and/or religious meanings, so make sure you know what you’re doing.

- Grips, hilts, guards, and pommels: Once again, go with the Oakeshott classification. The hilt, guard, and pommel are actually the part where all of the “Blings” will go, and whether a sword is visually impressive depends on these parts. That said, do not try to “hang” everything on the three of them. In some cases they will make the sword impossible to be used.

Do not have the grip rounded, for when your character wielding that sword, he won’t known which is the front and which is the back of the blade (wrong blade alignment.) Have the grip quadrilateral, hexagonal, or octagonal.

For the wrapping of the grips, hilt, guard, uses cured hide of a monster, or its dried tendons. If necessary, boil down bones to make glue

- Finishing: Choose between browning, bluing, blackening, Parkerizing (the last three methods are recent inventions, and while they may not give the most aesthetically-pleasing look, they certainly protect the metal surface weel,) or just a simple layer of oil.

A traditional and effective method was to warm the blade and melt beeswax over the surface. It will protect the blade until rubbed off, and it has a good look.

Remember that your sword will certainly rust, considering the amount of blood you are going to douse it with, so if your game has a “Breakable Weapon” system, remember to clean and sharpen your sword after each engament

+ Case hardening: In case you want to make your sword fancier, there is the Case Hardening method which turn the polished blade into the color of translucent rainbow (seriously, Google it up.) There are two plausible way Case Hardening can be done in a medieval-fantasy setting: dunk the parts in a bath of boiling cyanide, or, packing the metal parts in a box along with charcoal, leather, and bits of bone (you can add some copper coin for an even shinier finish,) then heat everything up for several hours, and then quench it in water.