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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roadkill101" data-source="post: 3094399" data-attributes="member: 30952">A few years back I had a keen interest into acquiring a sword, one that was battle ready.  In other words, as sword that would perform as those produced in medieval times.  So I did some research on the web.I looked into things pertaining to metullurgy, form and function of a sword.  After having looked at various websites about swords and their aspects, I've come to learn a few things that seemed to keep popping up.Form follows function.  The shape, size, weight and balance of a sword all define how it can be used and against what it can be used for.  More often than naught, form is a matter of the time period and what types of protection were used in the day.  None of which was any real surprise to me, as I already understood this about weaponry in general.This concept fails to carry on into RPG's unless the weaponry available is niche specific to more realistically recreate a time period within a campaign.The materials used in the make up of a weapon will vastly affect what it's limitations are performance wise.  In the case of manufacturing swords, it was a highly developed, specialized and controlled skill.  The crafting of Western European swords is pretty much a lost art due to the secrecy involved in swordsmithing (there are few written records dating from antiquity).  Modern "re-creationist" swordsmith's use their knowledge to of modern metullargy to attempt to recreate such blades with what limited knowledge is available.  Most of them charge a $1000 for a cheap, quick job, and can run as high as $8000 or more for a lovingly crafted piece of functioning art.All swords need to be able to flex and return back to shape while maintaining balance, and in later time periods were more often than not made of steel as Iron is actually a brittle metal and usnuitable for swords.  This was dependant on the carbon content and tempering of the blade.  In metallurgical terms swords usually ran between 60 to 70 points of carbon (something like 6%-7& IIRC, or maybe that's tenth of a percent).  Swords from antiquity have been tested in labs to ascertain this, by various museums.  Steel is defined as Iron which contains carbon that has been reintroduced back in by the manufacturing process.  The carbon content and introduction of other metals all determine the grade of modern steels.  Because modern steel is manufactered in large quantities and through a different procees than used in medieval times, there is a bit of difference between any swords made modernly compared to those of antiquity, even if the modern piece was heated in a blacksmith's forge and then shaped and tempered by hand.FYI the term Surgical Steel is a marketing ploy created by the marketing industry to sell you a product.   Scalpels and what not actually come in a variety of steel grades, it's a matter of form and sharpness which makes them effective.  "Stainless" basically means there is another metal in the mix which makes the steel resistant to corrosion and oxidization, but I know longer remember which metals are used for the Stainless alloys.Thus a blade used against hardened metals (i.e. metallic armors) had an edge but were most likely only sharp enought to define the edge.  By sharpening a blade you thin it out at the edges.  The sharper it is the thinner it gets, which in turns makes it brittle.  An impact or repeated impacts will shatter and fracture a sharp edge over time, even more quickly when used against a hardened surface, eventually compromising the blades integrity.  Which would require the owner to take the weapon to a qualified swordsmith to make costly and time consuming repairs.Said repair would basically consist of what amounts to folding a patch of steel over a serious nick (i.e one which can't be buffed out by a whetstone) and melding it into the blade.  Then the blade would require retempering.  An even more serious nick or gouge would most likely require the whole blade to be reforged.</blockquote>

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