In the beginning, a sword existed only as potential within the bones of the earth, and in the mind of its maker, the blacksmith. But before he could begin to put form to his thought he would need the raw material to create it. This came from the mountains of Middle-earth. Wherever there was igneous rock, rock formed through dramatic volcanic pressure, there would be seams of iron and it was this iron-rich rock that would contain the origins of all metal weaponry and armour in Middle-earth. The Dwarves were the first race to unlock the secrets of the earth, and they delved long and deep to bring them to the surface: gold and silver were their toys, and mithril was their wealth, but iron was their foundation. Using skills learned from their creator, Aulë the Vala, they fashioned some of the most wondrous weaponry ever to be seen in Middle-earth, including Elendil's sword, Narsil. Yet it is believed that Men learned the secret of mining not from them, for they were ever secretive, but from the Númenóreans who voyaged to Middle-earth during the Second Age, teaching the primitive Mannish cultures much that they themselves had learned from the Elves. Usually, it was the miners who conducted the first refinement of the ore. They would use their hammers to break the lumps of rock into small fragments, then grind these even smaller before creating huge covered furnaces in which to heat the rock to immense temperatures in order to melt it; the furnace would be constructed so that the molten iron could be partly extracted from the slag, or waste material. Once this semi-refined material had cooled and hardened it would be sold throughout the surrounding area for the best price. A skilled blacksmith would be able to take semi-refined ore, and look at it, and evaluate it and figure out the best way to make a good sword blade. Ore is different in different regions, containing different trace elements, and some of these would have been good for a blade, making it tougher, or they may have enabled the blacksmith to put a slightly harder edge on it, or heat-treat it to a higher degree. Ores from other regions wouldn't have made for as good a sword, and so, if necessary and possible, the blacksmith would have blended different supplies, welding or twisting different sections together. Access to a good ore supply would have avoided having to go through that level of process; it would also have made the sword less expensive. When the blacksmith had bought a quantity of semi-refined ore he would heat up his own, much smaller furnace and begin a further process of refining, this time beating and hammering it to push out any slag residue (this would show up as dark fragments within the glowing core of iron). This process would continue for as long as necessary, depending of the quality of steel he wanted. Iron would become steel when it had had sufficient quantity of carbon and other minerals introduced into it during the forging process. Ore was separated into two grades, the high-grade ore being used for weapons and the low-grade for armour. What was left was called a bloomery mass, which was a lump of iron mixed in with a small amount of slag and other residue. The blacksmith then repeatedly heated it, hammered it and stretched it out, trying to get the slag out; he would fold the red-hot back in on itself, welding it back together, beating it out again, trying to extract as much good molten iron from the mass as possible. This was the process now known as folding and stretching. It was principally to refine the iron, to get rid of the impurities and produce a consistent piece of quality steel. Once this had been performed enough times he would have a piece of steel that was fit for a sword. From there, making a sword by forging was really just a question of a shaping process. All of the real work had been done in the refining. Now, the blacksmith would take his piece of steel, heat it, hammer it into a blade shape, form a fuller if needed, which pushed the metal out sideways, and then form down the edges so that in the final grinding stages the blacksmith could take this rough forged blade and grind it off to get the final shape. In that final grinding he would introduce the taper down to the sword-point, while evaluating the flex of the blade and getting the weight working properly. He wouldn't want too much weight at the tip because all it would do was make the sword slower, whereas if it was too light the blade would lack effective impact and tire the swordsman who was trying to overcompensate for this. So it was about putting a taper in the blade if possible, thinning the blade so it wasn't too stiff at the tip but stiff enough towards the hilt so that it would flex evenly. One of the great skills was forming a blade that was as light as possible but as strong as possible and that had a hard sharp edge. Typically, the blade might be made by one person, and different fittings made by several other people because the sword and hilt combined metalwork, jewellery, the wood and leather of the grip and other embellishments. Sometimes, one person would do the whole process but usually the blade-maker would hand the blade to the hilt-maker and they would then start their side of the process. A skilled blade-maker would try to make the blade as light as possible because for every extra bit of steel in the blade twice that much at least would be needed in the pommel to get the balance working. So any excess in the blade tripled what was in the final sword. Weight isn't an advantage in a sword; the lighter it can be made to do the job the more effective it becomes. In combat, the sword is meant to be a fast weapon, an axe is slower because there is a head out there that the warrior is trying to propel. A sword relies on speed and slashing power rather than impact so weight isn't an advantage. Making the blade light helps the hilt; the hilt has a combination of functions: there is a handgrip, which is shaped to fit in the warrior's fist; a guard in front between the hand and the blade, which is partly to stop the hand sliding up the blade. If it's a wide cross-like guard, it stops an enemy blade sliding up and into the warrior's hand; it also protects the hand: if an enemy smashed their shield into the warrior's sword-arm it wouldn't crack onto his knuckles. The pommel is a counterweight but at the same time it has other aspects to it: it can be used as a bashing weapon, that's where the modern term 'pummelling' comes from. The pommel can't be too big, otherwise it would get in the way when the swordsman tried to bend his wrist and would stick into his arm if it was too big, thus not allowing the guard to protect his wrist properly - so it has certain shapes that can be used and certain shapes that can't. Lastly, there was the decorative function: if the pommel was made of iron it could be put onto the tang and then be decorated with inlays, etching, or jewellery - it could even be hollowed out like Narsil, if the swordsmith possessed sufficient skill. If the pommel was made of a metal such as bronze there was then the possibility of casting various designs into it by using the 'lost wax' process: a complex pommel could be built in wax, from which a shell would be formed that would be used to then cast it in bronze, giving a perfect reproduction. A sword has always been a prestige weapon; and it's been a symbol of rank because there's something special about a sword. It is only designed for warfare: where a spear or bow can be used for hunting the sword is one of the few weapons designed purely to kill. Anyone who owned a sword demonstrated that they had the money to spend on a weapon that had no real secondary function. While not being a utility weapon it was a very efficient combat weapon: the very fact that you were having to draw one meant that you were already in close combat - not an ideal situation - so it needed to have been forged, shaped and cared for to the highest possible standard: if your sword failed you for any reason during this stage of combat you would be dead. For this reason, a warrior's sword was treated with the same love and respect as he showed to one of his family. Even with the very best care, a blade would become marked, so no matter how well it was cared for and kept oiled the blade would get little spots of hard black corrosion on it, which was a form of rust but harder to get out. So what you would get over time is patches of slight pitting and little greyed areas where this rusting had started: despite being cleaned back it was still there, like a shadow in the metal. And these areas would keep growing until it was possible that a blade could be completely covered even while being looked after. If the soldier was involved in an extended period of battle he might not be able to look after it as he should so his blade would succumb to rusting; and if the rain got into his scabbard this might actually produce whole patches of rust on the blade, which he would clean off when he could but they would still start to chew in. Another enemy of the sword was blood. Blood was very bad for the blade, because the haemoglobin contains iron. If you had dried blood on your blade and then a little moisture got onto it, it would start to rust very quickly so you had to clean any blood off your sword quickly if you wished to protect the metal. And that harder style of black rust would have been cutting into the blade anyway, so it was a constant battle against a most difficult enemy. It was the same with steel hilt fittings; the blade would spend most if its life being protected by the scabbard, which might have oil in it, but the hilt fittings would be knocked and scratched, and exposed to the elements, leaving them constantly open to attack from rust. The other major threat to a sword was the physical damage suffered when it was drawn and used in battle. Every time that the blade was brought down upon a hard surface, whether metal armour or shield, or even bone, it was likely that tiny dents and chips would appear in the sharp yet narrow blade-edge. Similarly, if two swords came into contact they would not - as is commonly thought - slide smoothly over each other but instead snag, creating further jagged edges that would need to be beveled out with a whetstone. The above is an except from THE LORD OF THE RINGS: WEAPONS AND WARFARE book by Chris Smith, available from Houghton Mifflin (USA) and HarperCollins Publishers (international)