SWORD MANUFACTURE. Several countries have been celebrated for the excel lence of the swords manufactured by the inha bitants. The swords of Toledo were famed even as far back as the time of the Romans. The Milan swords have likewise had a high reputation. But the Damascus swords have had the widest celebrity ; though 'no such manufacture is now carried on in that city, as the Damascus swords now existing are of old date.
About the year 1689 an attempt was made to improve and extend the sword manufacture of England by the incorporation of a company of sword-cutlers for making • hollow sword blades in Cumberland and the adjacent counties. The company was empowered to purchase lands, to erect mills, and to employ a great number of German artificers ; yet the project failed. Owing apparently to the parsi mony of the manufacturers; which led them to use inferior materials, and to employ unskilful workmen, English sword-blades fell into yery ill repute during the 18th century ; so much so, indeed, that an English officer would not trust his life to the hazard of the probable failure of a sword of native manufacture. Attention having been drawn to this subject, the late Mr, Gill, of Birmingham, entered into competition with the German sword-cutlers, and produced swords even superior to those of the German makers. The tendency of recent years has been to bring the chief European nations nearly to a level in this manufacture.
The process of manufacturing swords at Birmingham is as follows :—The material of which the blade is wrought should be cast steel of the very best quality, and wrought with the greatest care. Of this material, be sides the quantity prepared at Birmingham, much is obtained from Sheffield in the form of bars, called sword-moulds. These bars are heated in the fire, and drawn out upon an anvil by two workmen with hammers, giving alternate strokes. When the blade is required to be concave upon the sides, or to have a reeded back, or some similar ornament, it is hammered between steel bosses or swages. The blade is then hardened by heating it in the fire until it becomes worm-red, and is then clipped, point downwards, in a tub of cold water. It is tempered by drawing it through the fire several times until the surface exhibits a bluish oxidation, which takes place at a temperature of about 550° Fahr. The sword is then set to the required shape by placing it on a sort of fork upon the anvil, and wrenching it by means of tongs in the direction required to correct any degree of warping which it may have contracted during the hardening. The
grinding is performed upon a stone with either a flat or fluted surface, according to the kind of blade; and as the uniformity of the temper is impaired by this process, it is subsequently restored by a slight heating, after which the blade is glazed with emery, and, if the instru ment be a fine one, with crocus wards, after the manner of a razor-blade. The sword is then ready for the hilt or handle, the variety of which it is needless to enumerate.
Among the tests to which sword-blades are subjected in order to prove their flexibility and elasticity, is that of bending them into a curve by pressing the side of the blade against six or eight pegs or stout nails driven into a board, in such a manner that, when in contact with all the pegs, the middle of the blade may be bent six or seven inches from a straight line drawn between the point and the hilt. A further test is applied by an apparatus con sisting of a vertical pillar rising from a board. The point of the sabre is placed upon the board at the foot of the upright pillar, and the hilt is then pressed down until the middle of the blade bends away from the uptight piece to the required degree ; the amount of curva ture being shown by a peg which projects horizontally from the pillar, about midway be tween the top and the bottom. The temper is also proved by striking the blade smartly upon a table on both sides, and by severe strokes with the back and edge upon a block. Mr. Inglis, in his ' Spain in 1830; describes the trials to which sword-blades are subjected at the celebrated manufactory of Toledo. Each sword is there thrust against a plate in the wall, and so bent into an arc forming at least three parts of a circle, and then struck edgeways upon a leaden table with all the force which can be given by a powerful man holding it with both hands. The polishing, according to the same authority, is performed upon a wheel of walnut wood.
The ancient Damascus sword-blades have a peculiar wavy appearance on the surface,which is called damascene or damasking. [DAMA SCENE WORK.] Various modes have been adopted for imitating this appearance ; but it is not known whether any of them are iden tical with the original practice.