48 CHAPTER 1
is sunk into the die or mould of an anvil producing almost identical forms,191
being the first step toward mass production.192
In what follows, the steps in the manufacture of an ideal sword and a spear
will be presented by an imagined blacksmith of the Avar Age.
During the manufacture of a sword the blacksmith first separated a piece of
iron of between 1–2 kg in weight from the original pig-iron by cutting193 using
a chisel. The first step in the manufacture of a sword is the forming of the hilt-
stem (or hilt-tongue) of the sword, creating an iron stick of quadrangular or
rectangular cross section by hammering. This procedure is called upsetting.194
The blacksmith held this stem with tongs while shaping the blade of sword.
During the forming of the blade the cross section of the iron stick was nar-
rowed and its length increased significantly by a process known as drawing
down, made on an anvil.195
In most cases the sword blade was not made of a single piece of iron, since
the high carbon content would have made it hard and brittle, while a blade
with low carbon content would have been too soft, and therefore steels of vari-
ous carbon content had to be combined for ensuring the hardness and flex-
ibility needed for a weapon. The steel pieces of various carbon content were
fixed together by forge welding.196 In some cases the edges of the swords were
made of hard steel with a high carbon content, while the fuller or the rest of
the blade was made of soft iron of low carbon content. However, by using such
simple processes there was a danger of injury of the blade by the welts, thus
the edges could fall off.
Some more difficult processes were also used for making the blade flexible,
like pattern welding where several small steel sticks of various carbon content
were welt together, and in most of the cases it was fixed to the fuller of the
blade. The edges were usually made of a hard steel of high carbon content. The
pattern welding would result in a pattern on the blade which became visible
as a result of natural chemical reactions resulting in various colours: the steel
191 For swaging or die forging see: Pleiner 2006, 64.
192 This method was supposedly used by the manufacturing of ‘high-quality’ reed-shaped
spearheads with grid-patterned rings and stirrups with rectangular loop (Bálint 1993, 196;
Tomka 2008, 249), although it is not verified by metallographical analyses (on contrary:
Piaskowski 1974).
193 Pleiner 2004, 199; Pleiner 2006, 54.
194 Pleiner 2004, 199; Pleiner 2006, 55; Szabó 2001a, 3.2.
195 Pleiner 2006, 55; Szabó 2001a, 3.1.
196 Pleiner 2006, 58–60.