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    Stability of Swords

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    Alejandro Carlos Calero

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    Stability of Swords

    Uploaded by

    Alejandro Carlos Calero
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    Stability of swords

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    Stability of Swords

    Uploaded by

    Alejandro Carlos Calero

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Polybius (2.

    33) reports that the Gauls at the Battle of Telamon (224 BC) had
    inferior iron swords which bent at the first stroke and had to be straightened with
    the foot against the ground. Plutarch, in his life of Marcus Furius Camillus,
    likewise reports on the inferiority of Gaulish iron, making the same claim that
    their swords bent easily. These reports have puzzled some historians, since by that
    time the Celts had a centuries long tradition of iron workmanship.[5] In 1906 a
    scholar suggested that the Greek observers misunderstood ritual acts of sword-
    bending, which may have served to "decommission" the weapon.[6] Such bent swords
    have been found among deposits of objects presumably dedicated for sacred purposes.
    The speculation has been repeated since.[5] Radomir Pleiner, however, argues that
    "the metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was right up to a point. To judge
    from the swords examined in this survey, only one-third could be described as
    conforming to the quality which he ascribed generally to Celtic swords. Even so, it
    is quite possible that even some of the better quality swords would have failed in
    battle."[6] Nevertheless, he argues that the classical sources are exaggerated.
    Plutarch's claim that Celtic swords would bend completely back is implausible, as
    only a slight bending would be likely.[6] Pleiner also notes that metallurgical
    analysis performed on Celtic swords suggests that they were only work hardened and
    only very few were quench hardened, even though they frequently contain enough
    carbon to be hardened (in particular the swords made from Noric steel). Quench
    hardening takes full advantage of the potential hardness of the steel, but leaves
    it brittle, and prone to breaking. Quite probably this is because tempering wasn't
    known. Tempering is heating the steel at a lower temperature after quenching to
    remove the brittleness while keeping most of the hardness.

    There is other evidence of long-bladed swords bending during battle from later
    periods. The Icelandic Eyrbyggja saga,[7] describes a warrior straightening his
    twisted sword underfoot like Polybius's account: "Whenever he struck a shield, his
    ornamented sword would bend, and he had to put his foot on it to straighten it
    out".[8][9] Peirce and Oakeshott in Swords of the Viking Age note that the
    potential for bending may have been built in to avoid shattering, writing that "a
    bending failure offers a better chance of survival for the sword's wielder than the
    breaking of the blade...there was a need to build a fail-safe into the construction
    of a sword to favor bending over breaking".[10]

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