04-02-2003, 07:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2003, 07:45 AM by Rhydderch Hael.)
Albion Child,Apr 1 2003, 10:09 PM Wrote:...Machining (Milling), well, you would need a very large, expensive chink of metal which a machine would basically carve into shape....Obviously spoken from someone who has never seen a sword blank or heard of stock-removal processes.
No way wall hanger swords are machined, for the same reason compound bows with machine risers cost double what those with cast risers do.
Only a qualified, card-carrying idiot would grind down a sword from a block of stainless. Get a pressed sheet, cut the basic sword shape, then grind in the edges and finish out the profile, and voila, a craptacular and cheap stainless steel sword.
Pure stock removal (as oppossed to forging or using Swedish powdered) doesn't count into fuel costs, after all.
And a bad heat treat isn't about chipping or breaking the blade, but determining if the thing will take or hold an edge. A sword whose edge folds or dulls out after a few cuts is one for the reject pile.
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.