> I was of the understanding that even too high-phosphor and especially too
> high-carbon iron (call it crappy steel for the sake of argument) can be
> slowly rectified by extensive tempering.
You can manipulate the carbon content of an already cast piece of iron in various ways, including adding more carbon to wrought iron, and removing it from cast iron, to reach the magic "steel" range. (High carbon iron is by definition not steel, crappy or otherwise.) The specific purpose of _tempering_, however, is to manipulate the hardness (and conversely, the toughness) of the metal, which is to do with the size, configuration and precise composition of iron/steel crystals inside the metal. One ideally wants a relatively soft core (and back, for a single-blader) to give the whole thing strength, and a harder edge, for painfully obvious reasons (to the person you just boinked over the head with it).
> I think we underestimate the amount of
> practical, experimental knowledge these smiths would have had - they would
> have seen what worked over & over, and what didn't.
I don't think we do -- it's just important to understand that's _all_ they had. The people who made (say) katana had no idea what "carbon content" or "iron crystals" were, and would probably have thought you were mad if you had tried to tell them. Which isn't to say that they didn't know what they were doing.
ObGlorantha: doncha appreciate the long hard hours those poor Third Eye Blue chaps put in trying to work stuff like this out, a bit more now? A bargain at 1 POW per Enc, I tells ya. (Ooops, CrimeSystem GameThink.)
Slainte,
Alex.
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