Funny how a series that isn’t about smithing got more right in a few panels about smithing that series that revolved around blacksmiths.
Yes a smith would quench a metal that’s proving resistant to shaping. The reason is because by heating and rapidly cooling metal you change it’s structure from the tight Ferrite, Pearlite, or Austenite crystal structure that gives a metal it’s hardness and transforms it to a fairly fragile martensite which is more malleable to forging.
That said unless a blade is really badly mangled and full of cracks, chips, rolls, and burrs a smith usually won’t try to heat and forge it to sharpen it because there isn’t much need, a few hours with a leather strope and possibly a grind stone if needed is usually enough to sharpen a blade but doing it well is a pretty narrow skillset. Even in japan where they elevated swordsmithing to an artform the smith send their blades to specialist that can take literal months to sharpen and polish a blade to perfection.
IsaEirias
Funny how a series that isn’t about smithing got more right in a few panels about smithing that series that revolved around blacksmiths.
Yes a smith would quench a metal that’s proving resistant to shaping. The reason is because by heating and rapidly cooling metal you change it’s structure from the tight Ferrite, Pearlite, or Austenite crystal structure that gives a metal it’s hardness and transforms it to a fairly fragile martensite which is more malleable to forging.
That said unless a blade is really badly mangled and full of cracks, chips, rolls, and burrs a smith usually won’t try to heat and forge it to sharpen it because there isn’t much need, a few hours with a leather strope and possibly a grind stone if needed is usually enough to sharpen a blade but doing it well is a pretty narrow skillset. Even in japan where they elevated swordsmithing to an artform the smith send their blades to specialist that can take literal months to sharpen and polish a blade to perfection.