Quote Originally Posted by Crawler View Post
I like this idea. And for ideas to smelt a bloom, I will point you to a documentary I watched on either History channel or Discovery Network or Science channel. It was about the "Ulfberht", a Viking sword, and a master swordsmith that recreated an Ulfberht using almost entirely "period accurate" techniques & such. He built his own crucible & smelting kiln/furnace/pit thingy. It was quite enjoyable!

And forgive my layman's understanding, but isn't carbon steel properly heat treated when a magnet won't stick to it while the steel is red-hot??
I have done very little forge work. However when I was in high school the metal shop students made the chisels for the wood shop. I made a set of lathe chisels. It seems to me that when we did the heat tempered the chisels we heated the steel until the magnet would not stick and then quenched it in oil. It seems to me that we did that twice though. I have no idea what we were using for steel though.
Someone that actually knows what they are talking about will likely set us straight on this.