Nighty_Knight
Troubadour
Pretty much.@Nightly_Knight
“Yes, less durable. Because it will hold its shape much better, but when it does reach a point it has to move it will crack, break, or even shatter. That’s a big reason sword steel is hardened between HRc45 and HRc65. Too much higher than HRc65 or so and it will be too brittle. Less than HRc40 and it’s just iron. Some swords like katanas often have two different steel hardness, the sharp blade will be about 60 or so and the spine of the blade will be more like 45 or 50. That way the blade sharpness will retain better but the overall blade will still have some flex to it.”
“Also, lot depends on the steel being used to begin with. I don’t know enough about the metallurgy but as I understand spring (like 9260) and tool steel (such as T10) are used in some of the highest quality swords these days.”
I’m gonna be honest chief. I don’t know nearly enough about sword making and metallurgy to understand what terms like HRc45 mean, but from what I gathered from your answer, swords need to flex a little bit in order to avoid breaking from being swung around to aggressively. Am I correct in saying this?