The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-08-12
misceIlamp.
Steel for Sword. and Arrevv.head..


Steel for Swords and Arrow.heads
The common English arrow-heads msnufac
tured at Sheffield were long celebrated for theil
excellent temper rs Sheffield iron and steel plate,
are now. The Battle OF Y .mildon, fought in
Scotland, in 1902 WAS Wet 'inly through thsiI
excellence. The historian records that they pen.
etrated the armor of the h +, # Douglas, which
had been three years in making; aud they were
$50 sharp and strong that no arinor could repel
them" The same arrowheads were found
equally efficient against the French Armor on
the fields of Crecy and Axncourt.
Although Scotland is of the pr,nc-
pal sources from which supplies of iron are
drawn, it was in ancient times greatly distressed
for want of the metal. The people were as yet too
little skilled to be able turn their great mineral
wealth to account. Even in the time OF slisce,
they had scarcely emerged from the stone peri
cd, and were under tie Necessity IT resisting
their iron-armed English ..rer, .:Ies ~ means
of rude weapons oI thar mA'e,i,l. +" supply
themselves with swords anu PEE. heau- they
imported steel from Flanders, Al t.e r"-r they
obtained by marauding incursiun> Int" En-. ,nd.
The district of Furness III l. ,shir.-lien, as
now, an iron producing district---was ireu urntly
ravaged with that object; and un such occasions
the Scotch seized and carried oft all IT,. IA fac
tursd iron they could fint, preierrinz il, though
50 heavy, to every other kind of plumber About
regarded AS almost d precious metal. even in
England Itself; for we fnd tina. 10 EIw4rd the
Thirds reign the potts. pits, aud r.Ing-pans Of
the royal kitchen were CHASED among his Ma.
jesty's jewels
The same famine OF iron prevailed 70 "A still
grea ter extent i'll the Highlands, where i. Was
even more valued, the clans lived chiefly by
hunting, and were i'll An almost constant state of
feud. Hence tho smith was Il man of indispens.
tha Hs,,h1. 4
ehelpossession of skillfnli armorer w,s greatly
valued by the chiefs. The story is told OF some
delinquency having been committed by 4 High
Land smith, on which Justice mast be done, but
a. the chief could not dispense with the smith,
he generously offered to hang two weavers in
his stead.
AT length great armorer arose in the High.
lands, who was able to forge armor that would
resist the best Sheffield arrow-heads and to
make swords that would vie with the best weap.
ons OF Toledo and Milan. This was the famous
Andrea de Ferrara, whose swords still maintain
their ancient reputation. This workman j. sup
posed to have learnt his art in the Italian city
after which he was called, and returned to prac.
tice it in secrecy among tho Highland hills
Before him, no man in Great Britain is said to
have known how to temper u sword in such a
way as to bend so that the point should touch
the hilt and spring back unipjured. The swords
lngly in g.eat request; for it was of every ini-
portance to the warrior that his weapon should
be strong and sharp without being unwieldy,
and that it should no, be liable to snap in the
act of combat. This celebrated smith, whose
personal identity has become merged in the An.
drea de Ferrara swords of his man u facture, pnr.
sued his craft in the Highlands, where he EN-
ployed number OF skilled workmen in ,rsing
weapons. devotins his own time principally to
giving them their required temper He is said
to have worked in a dark cellar, the better to
enable him to perceive the effect Of the heat up.
on the metal, and to watch the nicely OF the op.
eratcn of temp"rinr. IS well as possible to serve
as screen 20 his secret method Of working.
Long after Andre, de Ferrara's time, the
Scotch swords were famous for their temper;
Judge Marshall Patten, who accompanied the
PROTECTORS expedition into Scotland in l547, OBJ.
serving that the "Scots came with swords all
broad and thin. Of exceeding good temper, and
universally made to slice that never saw
none good, so think it hard to devise bet.
ter The quality of the steel used for weapons
of war was indeed of 10 less Importance for the
efectua defence of country then than it is
now. The courage of tho attacking AMI defend
ing forces being equal, the victory would nece--
sarily rest with the party in ppsses,ion of the
best apons-Smilei industrial BtQgraphy.