Thread: Banded Slate Whetstones - Viking Stones

Originally Posted by WW243

What's so special about what sharpening stones Vikings used? And, don't forget that they preferred axes from swords. The only reliable swords of their age, there, were the real Ulfberht, and they were very few and extremely expensive.
So I am guessing that you deduced 'extremely expensive' based on the very limited number of real Ulfberht found. But really I want to thank you for introducing this word, ULFBERHT for a Viking sword....of which the history is a fascinating mystery....really worth more time than I can cheat my work out of right now...........

There was a video on youtube, "secrets of the Viking sword", you can check it out, it's very interesting. From the steel used for making them, it's quite possible that is was obtained from the East, through the Volga trade route. And, imported steel from this far, I'm pretty sure it was expensive.
Something else I read recently, and think that might be interesting for anyone who's fascinated in ancient swords,
Razor Edged 2: Steel hardness, structures and sharpness | Tameshigiri.ca and
Razor Edged 3: Comparing metallurgy of special medieval swords | Tameshigiri.ca
I'm mainly focusing in the blade testing graphs.
For anyone who doesn't have the time to read, to summarize, aside from the Japanese swords, any old long blade, has such a bad tempering, I'd imagine their performance was similar to a Wrought iron blade. And, the carbon content was far from homogenous in all examples.