About the Art of European Swordsmithing

The first swords entered the history of Central Europe along with the knowledge of bronze casting at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC. They remained in use until the advent of the Early Iron Age in the 8th century BC when iron swords began to appear. However, the art of their production was still in its infancy. The smithing crafts of the ancient world, particularly in Rome, were already specialized according to the nature of the products they produced. Swordsmiths in Rome were known as gladiarii and hastarii.

Replica of a Roman Gladius sword based on archaeological finds from Pompeii

In contrast, we have no contemporary descriptions of possible specialization among Celtic and Germanic smiths. Blacksmiths working in the oppida and hillforts of Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages had to be highly versatile craftsmen, capable of forging both utilitarian objects and everyday tools as well as military equipment, weapons, and armor components.

Replica of a Celtic sword based on archaeological finds from the Late Iron Age

As the Middle Ages progressed, so did the specialization of blacksmithing crafts. In Western and Southern Europe, from the 12th–13th century, these specializations began to form the first craft organizations—guilds. One of these guilds was that of the swordsmiths, who, as their name suggests, specialized in the production of swords. However, they were not the only craftsmen who made weapons for fencing. Alongside them, knife-makers' guilds emerged, producing not only knives and various cutting tools for crafts and households but also weapons such as daggers, falchions and langmessers („long knives“). Some of these long knives had blade lengths approaching that of swords, which often led to accusations from swordsmiths that knife-makers were encroaching on their trade. Such disputes frequently ended up in court.

From Iron Ore to the Finished Sword

The labor intensity and duration of sword production largely depended on the extent to which the blacksmith (or later, the swordsmith) had to prepare the material himself. In the early Celtic period, iron ore was smelted in pit furnaces, then in dome-shaped furnaces partially embedded in slopes, and later in small shaft reduction furnaces known. The early and high medieval periods continued to use similar shaft furnaces, which were somewhat larger than their predecessors but still far from being true blast furnaces. The final result of these metallurgical processes was iron in the form of axe-shaped ingots or crude bars, known as“schinen“, which became the basic raw material for blacksmithing. Blacksmiths also worked with pattern-welded billets, which represented another form of starting material. These were created by welding together iron plates of varying hardness into a roughly prismatic shape.

A                                                  B

A: Replica of a Viking sword loosely inspired by Pattern S from Petersen’s typology

B: Replica of a Merovingian-period sword found in Finland

The rough forging of a basic sword blade took approximately eight hours. However, when considering all the additional steps—edge refinement, guard and pommel production, assembly, grinding, and polishing—the total production time for a simple one-handed or "long" sword was around one week. Experimental replica production has shown that the crafting of a high-status early medieval one-handed sword with a pattern-welded blade and a hilt decorated with bronze took over 200 hours of work.

Technical Capabilities and Quality

How high was the quality of a swordsmith's work? Naturally, it was conditioned by the technological possibilities of the given historical period. Celtic swords were usually made from relatively soft iron, though some weapons with steel edges or attempts at hardening the blade (e.g., through carburization) have been documented. However, as ancient historians noted, Celtic swords had a tendency to bend in battle against armored Roman legionaries, forcing warriors to straighten them against the ground using their feet. Later-period Germanic swords often exhibited greater hardness, though this was not universally the case.

By this time, blacksmiths were experimenting with forging together strips of soft and hard iron to improve blade properties. This technique reached a higher level in the 9th–10th centuries when swordsmiths in the Frankish Empire deliberately forge-welded soft and hard iron (steel) strips to achieve an optimal balance of durability, hardness, and flexibility. This so-called false (or pattern-welded) Damascus steel also produced aesthetic patterns when polished, adding artistic value to the weapon. The pinnacle of this craft was reached when the swordsmith welded steel edges onto such a prepared core—a practice also applied to swords with a core made of common iron rather than pattern-welded steel. The welding of steel edges onto an iron core remained the standard method of sword production in the following centuries.

Workshop and Shop Offering Swords – Surprisingly, They Are Sold Not by a Swordsmith (Schwertfeger), but by a Cutler (Messerschmidt). Woodcut by Jost Amman, 1568.

Swords in the European Market and Royal Trade Bans

Sword production was not limited to local markets but was also a major export industry. In early medieval Europe, swords made in the Frankish Empire—whether in present-day France or the German regions and the Rhineland—were particularly renowned. By the High Middle Ages, swordsmithing workshops in Spain (especially Toledo) and in the German cities of Passau and Solingen became especially famous. However, other regions in Europe also gained a reputation for quality swords. While there is no direct evidence that swords from Kingdom of Bohemia were exceptionally famous abroad, the products of Bohemian knife-makers—including falchions and long knives—were recognized beyond the kingdom's borders.

Records of Bohemian and Moravian swordsmiths mostly come from larger cities. For exemple in the second half of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century, Prague had about 10–15 swordsmiths, Kolín had 4, Tábor 3, Brno between 1 and 8, and Jihlava between 2 and 3. Given that the sword was not only a military weapon but also a means of personal self-defense, these numbers are not surprising. Interestingly, swordsmiths in Kingdom of Bohemia were generally not among the wealthiest townspeople and were often part of the middle or even poorer strata of urban society.

Replica of a late medieval sword (c. 1350–1500) loosely inspired by originals and historical depictions

Like other arms and armor, swords were considered strategically valuable goods, and their export was occasionally subject to royal prohibitions. For example, in the early medieval Frankish Empire, the export of swords to actual or potential enemies—such as the Slavs and Scandinavians—was banned. However, money moves the world, and the number of distinctly Frankish swords found in Viking contexts suggests that such bans were not strictly adhered to.

A similar situation can be assumed in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Hussite Wars  of first half of 15th Century when trade with the Hussites (and thus most of the Bohemian lands) was subject to a general papal embargo. It is known that merchants from Nuremberg persistently sought exemptions from the embargo, and despite these efforts, a black market with the Hussites undoubtedly existed. It would be naïve to think that weapons—including swords—were not among the goods traded under the table.