n. In tempering the blade the workman judges
of the proper heat by the colour. Water is preferred to oil by the best
makers, notwithstanding that tempering in oil is much easier. With oil
there is not the same risk of the blade coming out distorted and having
to be forged straight again (a risk, however, which the expert
swordsmith can generally avoid); but the steel is only surface-hardened,
and the blade therefore remains liable to bend. Machinery comes into
play only for grinding and polishing, and to some extent in the
manufacture of hilts and appurtenances. The finished blade is proved by
being caused to strike a violent blow on a solid block, with the two
sides flat, with the edge, and lastly with the back; after this the
blade is bent flatwise in both directions by hand, and finally the point
is driven through a steel plate about an eighth of an inch thick. In
spite of all the care that can be used, both in choice of materials and
in workmanship, about forty per cent. of the blades thus tried fail to
stand the proof and are rejected. The process we have briefly described
is that of making a really good sword; of course plenty of cheaper and
commoner weapons are in the market, but they are hardly fit to trust a
man's life to. It is an interesting fact that the peculiar skill of the
swordsmith is in England so far hereditary that it can be traced back in
the same families for several generations.

"The best Eastern blades are justly celebrated, but they are not better
than the best European ones; in fact, European swords are often met with
in Asiatic hands, remounted in Eastern fashion. The 'damascening' or
'watering' of choice Persian and Indian is not a secret of workmanship,
but is due to the peculiar manner of making the Indian steel itself, in
which a crystallizing process is set up; when metal of this texture is
forged out, the result is a more or less regular wavy pattern running
through it. No difference is made by this in the practical qualities of
the blade."

The above-quoted description, though short and superficial, is
sufficient to indicate some of the chief difficulties of the
swordsmith's art, and it sets one thinking, too, as to the various uses
to which cutting instruments are put, and gradations of hardness, from
the high temper of razors and certain chisels to the low temper of
hunters' and sailors' knives, which should always be of rather soft
steel, for they are sharpened more easily, and the