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They didn't have the technology to make steel, they could make iron soft and pliable or hard so it shattered, they blended the two. For a broadsword they would wrap iron bars round a post and then twist them together before flattening them out. Where the bars twisted round the post would be made into a handle or sometimes in lighter swords a handle and cage to shield the hand. Japanese sword makers would beat two blocks of metal together , then fold them and do it again and again, where the blade is hollow ground you can see the thin sheets like a fingerprint. Sorry, a digression from your original question, to get the best hardness on a blade like this you temper it by heating and then cooling rapidly when the right temperature is reached, you can tell this by the colour, blue just right, straw colour too hot, and then plunging it into water to cool suddenly and it keeps the colour. This is from memory from long ago so may not be a 100% accurate
, The quality of iron or steel depends on th carbon content and I belive that may also give you black iron where the carbon has been hammered to the surface.
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