Little Jimmy took Isolde through the cavern, pointing to the men preparing for battle. His bad arm hung limply at his side but the other was in full animation, explaining the techniques of sword making.<br/>"Sword fabrication breaks down into roughly three processes: forming, heat treating and finishing. Depending on many factors such as base materials, location and era these processes might merge, overlap or be dispensed with entirely. A sword's long edges, excluding the pommel and hilt, constitutes the cutting component of the weapon."<br/><br/>He was so excited by the process that he was nearly bouncing as they stood staring into the fires of the smith.<br/><br/>"Swords can be shaped by a variety of metalworking techniques. In some times and places one technique has been used exclusively, in others a combination of techniques have been used. The primary techniques are forging and stock removal.<br/><br/>Forging uses heat to bring the material to a malleable state. The material is then hammered to shape, typically using hammer and anvil together with specialized set and fuller tools depending on the particular technique. There are a variety of forging techniques for sword making and many variations upon those."<br/>The smiths with their bulging arms and massive shoulders swung hammers that rang out as they pounded the metal blades against the avils.<br/><br/>"See why I am not use to the smith with my damaged arm." He  flapped the damaged arm as he spoke. but then continued,<br/><br/>"Stock removal shapes the sword from prepared stock that is larger in all dimensions than the finished sword by filing, grinding and cutting. While the technique has been available for a century as it is wasteful of the raw material. but iron and steel are plentiful  here, so this method is frequently used as it requires less skill and time. In places and times where iron and steel have been more rare and valuable stock removal has not been used except as part of the finishing process. Kell is hoping the Black King falls into that category."<br/><br/>Isolde tried to shush him from mentioning the name but Little Jimmy just grinned at her and went on with his lecture,<br/><br/>"In most techniques the basic materials, generally iron and/or steel, are shaped into a bar or billet first. At this stage if several metals are to be used they will be combined by welding to form the billet. In some techniques, notably the traditional folded steel blades of Saracens, the billet might be drawn, folded and welded back on itself creating layers of steel of different types. In others longer bars or rods of steel and iron might be welded together, edge to edge, to create the basic billet placing the softer iron inside with the steel at the core and edges. Once the billet is created it is drawn out farther, generally tapering to the edge(s) and point. The technique of fullering might be used to create a ridge or ridges down the length of the blade. Whether single or multiple, the ridge's primary purpose to give the blade greater structural strength relative to its mass.<br/><br/>During fabrication the metal might be annealed to relieve stresses built up from forging and differential heating, and to make the metal easier to file, engrave or polish.<br/><br/>After the workpiece is done being formed, it is normalized. The blade is carefully and evenly heated and then cooled slowly. The point of normalizing is to remove the stresses which may have built up within the body of the blade while it was being forged. During the forging process the blade might be heated and cooled differentially creating stress, some parts might be hammered more than others, some areas hammered enough to work harden. If these stresses are left in the blade they could affect the finishing and when it came time to heat treat the blade, the hardening and tempering might not be as even. Potentially enough stress could be added that the blade would be weak in spots, weak enough that it could fail under enough stress.<br/><br/>As one of the last processes in fabricating a sword is quenching and tempering it. Quenching hardens the metal so it holds an edge longer but this also makes it very brittle. To restore some ductility and durability the sword is tempered. With swords, due to their length, the challenge is greater as in a typical quenching it is possible to bend or warp the blade if it is not introduced to the quenchant smoothly and evenly.<br/><br/>Swords could also be differentially hardened so that some parts, like the cutting edge, are harder than the body.<br/><br/>Once the blade had been heat treated, a sword would be ground with progressively finer abrasives until the desired finish was achieved. It would then be sharpened. The sharpness of a sword, and ability to keep that edge, is based on the angle of the edge and the width of the body of the sword. How long it can hold the edge is also dependent on the material used.<br/><br/>Finishing encompasses polishing, decorating, and crafting and assembling the hilt, guard and sheath.<br/><br/>The swordsmith would be most concerned with the state of the blade itself and possibly decorating the blade and preparing the guards and pommel. Other artisans would likely be involved in the work of fashioning the hilt, sheath and other furniture; and in any fine decoration."<br/><br/>Isolde was amazed that he could spew so much information without taking more than a single breath.<br/><br/>"Little Jimmy, you have learned much from the smith. It is too bad about your arm. Perhaps you could learn to decorate the hilts and sheaths." she commented.<br/><br/>He squirmed under her praise.<br/>"What I want is a weapon to fight with. perhaps a warhammer or a small ax. I am Kell's man and as such would march into the jaws of hell itself." The boy stood as tall as he could, squaring his thin shoulders. Isolde's heart ached at the sight.<br/><br/>The men strode past and Isolde found her eyes following Arrus. She compared him to Kell. They were quite different. Her mouth went dry as she noted  his broad shoulders. She smiled at him, hoping to convey her interest in him without interrupting his discussion with the other warriors.<br/><br/>Millicent had followed them, asking twice for help for her ribs. Isolde focused her attention on the woman.<br/>"I have some comfrey with me, that I could make into a poultice. If one of these fires could be used to boil some water, I will tend to you. A light wrapping of linen to hold the poultice in place should speed the healing. I will also make you some willow bark tea. Little Jimmy, can you please take us to a cooking fire?" Isolde asked.<br/><br/>The little boy was nearly too nimble for the women but finally they arrived at a large tent that marked the designated cooking area.Water was ready to be set over the roaring fire. Isolde took out her herbs and went to work.<br/><br/>They fashioned a privacy curtain from an old horse blanket so Millicent could receive treatment in private. Soon, she had her ribs bound and had redressed in Isolde's blue dress.<br/><br/>"If the bodice is too tight, "Isolde said, not in a begrudging way," perhaps we could find you more suitable battle clothes. You may wear the dress to fight, I do not think the dress will matter to me at the end of the long night. but you must be happy and free to move."