Historically speaking, bladesmithing is an art that has survived and thrived over thousands of years. Many different parts of the world have different styles of bladesmithing, some more well-known than others.
Egyptian Ancient Egyptians referred to iron as "copper from the heavens" because their lack of
smelting technology limited their accessible iron supplies to what little
native iron they could recover from
meteorites. Despite iron's rarity, they gained enough familiarity with ironworking techniques to have used
wrought iron in the manufacture of swords and blades as early as 3000 BC. They exported this technique to Assyria, Babylon and Greece through trade and as they conquered other lands and were conquered themselves.
Celtic The
Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture (8th century BC) were among the earliest users of iron swords. During the Hallstatt period, they made swords both in bronze as well as iron with rounded tips. Toward the end of the Hallstatt period, around 600-500BC, these swords were replaced with short daggers. The
La Tene culture reintroduced the sword, which were very different from the traditional shape and construction of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, characterized by a more pointed tip.
Chinese Traditional Chinese blades (
jians) are usually of
sanmei (three plate) construction, which involved sandwiching a core of hard steel between two plates of softer steel. The central plate protrudes slightly from its surrounding pieces, allowing for a sharp edge, while the softer spine protects the brittle core. Some blades had
wumei or five plate construction, with two more soft plates being used at the central ridge. Bronze
jian were often made in a somewhat similar manner: in this case an alloy with a high copper content would be used to make a resilient core and spine, while the edge would be made from a high-tin-content alloy for sharpness and welded onto the rest of the blade. The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technology that was carried to Korea and Japan, allowing swordsmiths in those places to create such weapons as the
katana.
Korean swords include long swords such as the yeoh do, geom, and hyup do and curved swords such as Samindo. Metal swords of double bladed leaf structure have been found throughout Korea dating back to the Bronze Age. These bronze swords were around in overall length, with a short handle.
Japanese The technology that led to the development of the Japanese sword originated in China and was brought to Japan by way of Korea. After abdicating, Toba II summoned Japan's finest bladesmiths around him in an effort to develop the perfect sword. Swordsmiths in Japan found the solution by wrapping a softer low-carbon steel core such as wrought iron, in a jacket of high-carbon steel and then
hardening the edge. It was during the
Muromachi period that the
katana and
tantō came into being. also crafted knives for cutting
tobacco, which had been introduced by the Portuguese. The Sakai bladesmithing industry received a major boost from the
Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868), which granted Sakai a special seal of approval and enhanced its reputation for quality.
Germanic (1879) , Syria, The Germanic
Migration period peoples also had advanced bladesmithing techniques for their level of technology. Migration Era smiths would often forge-weld blades of multiple materials, and their blades were typically double-edged and straight. Migration Era blades were often forged with a hard steel edge wrapped around a pattern welded core. Pattern welding was adopted from the neighbouring Romans, who had employed such technique since the second century AD.
Indian Bladesmithing was common practice in India during the Middle Ages. A special type of steel known as
Wootz or
Damascus steel was often used in South Asia. The term Damascus steel can refer to two different types of artefacts. One is the true Damascus steel, or Wootz steel, which is a high carbon alloy with tremendous edge retention possibly due to its composition of carbon nanotubes and carbide nanowires, with a wavy surface texture originating from the crystalline structure of alloy metals such as tungsten and vanadium - elements that occur naturally in iron ore from southern India - to the surface during the manufacturing process.
Sirohi sword represents the peak of Indian swordmaking craftsmanship. This is still in debate as metallurgist John Verhoeven at Iowa State University believes the nanowires to occur in most steels. The other is a composite structure made by welding together iron and steel to give a visible pattern on the surface, called pattern welded steel. Although both were referred to as Damascus steels, true Damascus steels were not replicated in Europe until 1821.
Spain Between the 15th and 17th centuries the
Toledo sword-making industry enjoyed a great boom, to the point where its
products came to be regarded as the best in Europe.
Middle East Damascus Steel was commonly used in the Middle East. ==Modern bladesmithing==