Abstract
While «pattern-welded» swords have been found all over Europe from sites dating from the Migration Period and into the Early Middle Ages, they were steadily supplanted during the Viking period by swords made out of a few pieces of iron and steel, or even a single piece of steel. Swords with «Ulfberht» or related inscriptions were the most famous of these. The results of the metallurgical study of 44 specimens from «Ulfberht» swords, as well as some other Viking-age swords, together with electron microanalyses carried out on selected examples, are presented here.
Highlights
While «pattern-welded» swords have been found all over Europe from sites dating from the Migration Period and into the Early Middle Ages, they were steadily supplanted during the Viking period by swords made out of a few pieces of iron and steel, or even a single piece of steel
During the early Middle Ages, the only ferrous material available for swords in Europe was «bloomery iron». This was the product of heating iron ore with charcoal in a small furnace
The iron ore was reduced to iron, but never melted, since the melting-point of pure iron is 1550oC, and never entirely separated from the slag formed by non-metallic impurities
Summary
While «pattern-welded» swords have been found all over Europe from sites dating from the Migration Period and into the Early Middle Ages, they were steadily supplanted during the Viking period by swords made out of a few pieces of iron and steel, or even a single piece of steel. There are no slag inclusions visible, nor separate grains of ferrite This sword was made from steel edges welded onto an iron body, and was given some sort of heat treatment to form a mixture of fine pearlite and bainite, which was tempered. Anteins[20] read the inscription as + VLBERHT + (and the + are Latin crosses and do not resemble the + on swords described above) Three samples were detached: (i) The edge 1 cm from the tip Metallography: the microstructure consists of divorced pearlite in small areas with very little slag. Microhardness (Vickers, 100g load) range [119-163] VPH (ii) A specimen from the edge of the blade shows a uniform microstructure of pearlite, which has been largely divorced (to cementite) by heating, together with some slag inclusions.
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