That's a heck of a lot of wastage for working iron. While there will be some loss from finishing, polishing and sharpening there'll be little or none in the forging. It's not a modern process where you cut off the bits you don't need and throw them away because it's more trouble than it's worth to reuse. Instead you hammer the ingot into the right size and shape for the blank you need and then hammer and fold it into the sword. Any cutting is done early on in the process and the scraps are recycled. A lot of the skill is in knowing how the hammering needs to be done to get the right result.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
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