Please begin every video with “I really like swords.”

That's me! That's me! Full disclosure, it wasn't actually me, but I was told to feel free and comment this below, so I did. As is my *right!*

One thing that's forgotten about quenching or lack thereof on weapons, is that the weapon can be work hardened with hammering. It might not be as hard as quenching (and it can be easy to go too far and then you have to anneal the blade), but it's still quite good for hardness, and is how they made hard edges in the bronze age and early iron age. Another aspect that's not often talked about is edge retention vs ease of sharpening. A blade that holds its edge well, is usually not as easy to sharpen, compared to a blade that doesn't hold an edge well, but is very easy to sharpen. In a survival situation, that's an important thing to consider.

You are the best voice for sword enthusiasts. Never have I doubted it

The sword ringing channel. Now there is something I did not knew I needed...

I'm so ready for the upcoming ASMR swords ding

The clash of steel, the ring of swords, the song of steel, the singing sword. A dull or off tone can also indicate cracks in the blade. Much like tuning the stays and shrouds of a sailboat.

I'm part of a renn faire group who does presentations about arms, armor and thier use throughout California, and I run into sooooooo many people who watch forged in fire and have no idea about tempering because they generally leave it out.

The thought of smacking a knife edge into a sword edge makes my soul hurt.

And now I kind of want to start collecting swords and finding a way to tune them to different notes such that they can be used to play music... Because why not?

A wider stiffer blade makes for good penetration. -Matt Easton 2018 Today's My birthday, Great Gift!!!

We need a sword ringing video!

Someone should start an orchestra with everyone playing a range of hanging blades. Which would be a cool name btw. XD

Good video Matt, I'm sure this will help a lot of newcomers, and it was entertaining for those who are experienced as well.

Only use high end swords with surperior harmonics when making a Swordy wind chime. Top tips

I like how you're already holding and swinging a sword right at the beginning of your video! I like that cutlass you were testing! Seeing that kind of solid spring in a blade is awesome! You've got a great collection! Definitely a true enthusiast!

I really liked the sword ring sound ! That could indeed be a whole clip of just the sounds of weapons. Medieval ASMR Channel :D

Yay! A short lil 20 minute video

Of COURSE it's a good question! Half of KZfaq is about how to tell if a gun is good or not, and people still can't agree.

An alternative to the knife test at the end that was also shown on the forged in fire spin off is simply scratching the blade. If you take your knife of known hardness. With the point or edge attempt to scratch your sword near the edge or on the flat. Similar to the file test if it cuts or scratches it's soft if it glides right across it's hard or has been hardened. A little less barbaric then smashing them together and you can pick a more suitable part of both blades.

Well now I’m sad, tried to play the xylophone on my longsword and it just made a sound akin to dropping your keys. :(

In did the clang thingy with my knife and a cheap windlass sword. It took a good chunk out of the knife...

Cool to know about the ringing. Perfectly timed too. Have my first European longsword on the way(only own katana and sabres as of now) That's a really good, quick way to see if everything is tight. Thank you so much. Hoping I hear that ring...

This sword rings as a bell. I'll show myself out.

Love this 19th century British Navy cutlass. It's just perfect. The outcome of a centuries long evolution. Both sturdy, sharp and agile.

You could test the sword by stabbing the guard you've taken it from..

Excellent tips for testing a sword. I loved it!

This was really entertaining and informative. And I'm not crazy about swords and just stumbled on this through a Google search. Even your rants were interesting and informative.

These are my favorite Matt Easton videos. Just Matt talking about swords and showing them off to us.

YAY for Matt Eastons Sword-Sound channel !

Differential hardening is the more correct term used when describing blades that have a softer perlite rich spine. Japanese swords were/are differentially hardened, but are not edge quenched. Also I'm quite surprised you didn't mention the brass rod test! Good video.

Thank you. This video has helped me a lot.

In my experience swords with the tangs completed surrounded by the grip, such as the katana or many talwars tend not to ring- the tang does not run completely through but terminates inside the grip material.

My phone rings. I suppose it's tight enough. Please do a "What does this sword sound like?" series!

*Two useful definitions for hardness and toughness (borrowed from mineralogy):* _Hardness_ - The ability for the surface of a material to resist permanent deformation. _Toughness_ - The ability for the body of a material to resist self separation. *Exemplification in postulates of these two aspects of material strength at play:* _a)_ If part of a cutting edge has folded, that is a failure of hardness but not toughness. The material changed it's shape but did not come apart from itself. The geometry in the plane that constitutes the surface has been altered to a degree that the materials shape memory does not cause it to return to a previously held geometry. _b)_ If that same section of edge were chipped instead of folded, that is a failure of toughness but not hardness. If you found the missing chip you'd discover under close examination that the preexisting surfaces are undamaged. The newly created edges of the piece of material would be sharp and the newly created surfaces would mesh back into the material from which it separated with a very close to perfect fit. This would show that along the plane that constitutes the preexisting surface that the geometry had not changed. Even though the material let go of itself. _c)_ Likewise if you were to drive a steel nail into a plate of copper (which does not have a thickness great than that of the nail) with enough force. The likely result is that the side the nail was driven into will be inset and the opposite side of the plate will be outset. This is a through dent. Were you to drive that nail again with a little more force the tip of the nail would break through the plate. This is a pierce. The through dent is the result of a failure of hardness. The pierce is the result of a failure of toughness.

Tempering is one of the most important swordsmithing process and yet it's highly understimated. No one hardened something without tempering. Even the Japanese tempered their swords, it's a process called "yaki modoshi" or "aitori". Nowadays many people use hardening and tempering interchangeably adding even more confusion on the terms...

And there was I thinking you just need to "swish!" it once to the left, once to the right, & then you'd know its quality like they do in the movies! Great video Matt. No need to test my sword collection as they're all I can afford-cheap wall hangers. Only one came sharp (So I quickly blunted it with a file)- The, "sword of Themistocles", which is one of the two really awful unbalanced heavy lumps in the collection.

Walk the camera from the sword shed to the garden. I think we'd enjoy seeing how they relate spatially.

There are two additional things I'd do: 1) thrust at a tree and see if the point bends or dulls (and if the blade bends or the grip loosens) 2) whack a soft wood with the blade and look for edge damage and blunting (and check for rattling). BTW: most blades will never allow to shave yourself, but you can test if the blade bites into your fingernail or is able to remove a bit of the thick layer of dead skin on your foot...

Really enjoy your channel.

Love this video, is very instructive

Really good video. Was a bit worried about the 'quick' duration, but it was all really good. I like the Forged in Fire references. I suspect they avoid tempering because it would add time, and some of the audience would not like seeing two 'similar' heat-related processes. Anyway, the show is super fun, esp when they say 'I've made knives, but never swords!' The forge is always too short, heh.

This is immensely informative for when I want to quickly test my sword before getting on the bus or the tram...

Wonderfully covered. Spring tempered steel is tough stuff, and modern steel is just incredible. When I make my knives, the first thing I do when it comes out of the tempering oven is put a test handle on it and stab it into a mild steel I beam as hard as I can. With the steels I use it there is rarely any damage. Even if it’s sharpened there isn’t much damage. Don’t do this with swords (they are thinner in the tip) and don’t do it with stainless.

Would the term "resilience" perhaps be more succinct than "tough" when describing the sword's capacity to withstand impact?

"A forgiving soft object" Like my friend, Steven! Lol

I mean yeah, those are great ways to test if you grab a sword and need to kill zombies or escape a jail. But really, if that's the first sword I see, I'm not gonna take the time to test it if I need to get out of there with a quickness. Even if it's essentially a big blunt bar of metal, it'll still do at least some damage. More than I could with my hands. Even wildly flailing like an inexperienced nonce (which I am).

Many thanks for the detailed reply, Matt. The specific scenario I had in mind was where the lord or boss of the castle returns from some especially dangerous solo mission in which his previous sword was first badly damaged by rough use, then lost entirely in a sort of tsunami. When he first gets home he calls for his personal assistant or literal batman to fetch him a new blade. He is really not a nice guy at this point in the story and is well aware that his henchmen serve him out of fear, not love. So, as I said, he does not exactly trust any of them 100 percent. His servant might well hand him a deliberately sabotaged weapon. It's a brief novel, notable for its sparse, terse prose. It says only that, " Before he had fully undressed, a fresh blade was brought to him. He paused to test it, then nodded. " His testing procedures are not specified, but I am going to assume they are something pretty similar to what you just showed us.

Hang the swords to ring out a tune. Perhaps a "I Wish You a Merry Christmas" video for later in the year.

Hello Matt you can do the same "ringing" technique with double barrel shotguns or drillings firearms as well . If it rings you'll know that none of the soldering has come undone and the barrels are connected well to the receiver. Just hang the barrel from your finger where the forearm attached to barrel and ring away.

Of course you might get banned from those cheap fantasy sword shops if you go in there and discover their stock does not return at all to straight after bending.

Wow! A vid on KZfaq that was really interesting instead of the usual trash. Thanks for uploading it.

Okay, quickly grab the sword.....oh wait, go put on your Super Dry shirt. Okay, grab the sword then spend twenty minutes explaining context and background, wait for you opponent to start nodding off and then stab them.

You should do a video where you do a segment where you play some music using the swords as instruments. That would be awesome. Watch your vids all the time, they are greatly made and super educational

Matt, in the future I want to know how each sword you decide to make a video about sounds!

Instead of smashing 2 bladed edges together inorder to find out which one is harder, you can use the sword or blade to scratch a thick glass bottle. Many glass bottles from beverages are consistently about 60 HRC and if you use the blade to carve a solid notch in the bottle that you can feel with more than your fingernail, the steel is hard and done WITHOUT major edge damage

Just a suggestion: If you don't happen to have a file handy, but you've got your "knife of known hardness" (even it that's "Hey, this knife is hard!"), you could perhaps use the very tip of the knife to attempt to scratch just behind the cutting edge of the sword. It's still an unkind thing to do, but it's a bit less destructive than banging the cutting edges together.

that cutlass has a very good, deep bell tone. that is a good sword. i do some blacksmithing. that ring says a lot.

How to test a sword "quickly" - video length 19:42. Matt, I venture that you are not good at doing things quickly, which explains your loving wife. ;)

When i buy a sword i just toss it up in the air in a spinning motion and i hold my arm out. if it doesn't chop my arm off, i'll take it.

Two additions: One: If a sword does not ring clean, or only for a short time, it can also indicate cracks and delaminations in the blade. Didn't hear you mention this. This is probably the best reason to ring a blade. A loose hilt is not nearly the issue a cracked blade is. When the vibrations of the ringing hit an inconsistency in the metal it messes with the wavelength and reflects it causing the ringing to die. It is possible in some cases to find the crack in a metal item by ear, tapping around the item and looking for sound changes. Two: In modern times scythes and sickles are hammer sharpened. You do not grind, you use a hammer straighten the edge and thin it to sharpen.Copper, brass, and bronze all work harden when hammered and soften back up with heat annealing. My guess is in ancient times they edge hardened the swords by hammering.

How to test a sword quickly... 20 minute video ha.

Ahhhh I sold u this sword! On Facebook! Great to see it on KZfaq

the "What does this Sword sound like" Orchestra please Matt!

I am not knowledgeable concerning swords but I have "some" experience with knives . I notice you handle the blades with your bare hands . How do you control rust formation from fingerprints and such . I have often found rusty finger prints within a day or two of handling a knife . I tend to oil rag wipe my knives , I believe, too often .

How did knights/men-at-arms handle the heat of summer in armour? Perhaps they wore fewer pieces?

You could set up the swords to make a xylophone... Awesome ringing blades. BTW.

_The hilt is completely tight on the tang_ *wink* *wink*

Steel usually has a fatigue limit. There is some stress below which it will not fail under fatigue at any number of cycles.

Matt just a quick point on 18:30 , Steel has a pretty special material property that it can flex a practical infinite amount of times without failure as long as the flexes are below a certain strain limit. Aluminium like in Aeroplane wings (18:17) does not have this property and will fail from small flexes eventually.

What about testing its weight, balance and behaviour in the hand if you're a noob? Maybe you want to buy a training sword and you don't know if it's crap or good quality, for example. I've had an antique sabre in my hands in my HEMA club and the veterans were amazed by the difference between the training sabres we use and the antique. It felt lighter, but I didn't know how to move it to feel the balance.

A 20 minute long video about testing swords quickly :)

Could you make more videos about ringing swords?

Skallagrim knows well how to abuse blades ^^

so for the last part, treat your training weapons as a consumable. test is whenever you need it and when it loses its required properties, replace it. its easier to replace a damaged sword than to fix a damaged health

I would totally watch the "What does this sword sound like" channel.

Very interesting and informative...until the very end. You clearly demonstrated that you do not fully understand metal fatigue. An aircraft wing continually bending or flexing, does so under the yield stress ie that necessary for plastic deformation. True It will lead to failure by fatigue fractures but you need in excess of 5 million cycles before you think of that. You can also flex a paper clip wire in the same manner. But if you heavily bend it back and forth (plastic deformation) you will quickly destroy it. So flex your swords within reason as much as you like as you ain't going to achieve the necessary cycles for fatigue. However if you're bent on destroying one the put it in a vice and put all your weight on it! 😀 Ps if you get insomnia there are volumes upon volumes on metal fatigue...

It exsists for sale some sandpaper with different hardness, their hardness being measured in rockwell. If you use those sandpapers from the softer to the harder, you can determine quite easily the hardness of your metal, sword or otherwise.

That seems like a quite practical and functional cutlass. What is your price to sell it? I am in the U.S. (California).

Richard Furrer makes an interesting statement regarding the appropriate level of hardness for a sword- "What does human flesh rockwell test at?"

Im looking into making a replica of a medieval falchion, trying to keep the cost down, i will be using carbon steel for the blade, a large industrial bearing as a base for the pommell, and a thick brass guard, .....any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated😀

I watched Peter Draws smell pens for an hour, I would DEFINITELY watch you ting swords for a couple hours. Someone with ambition could work out what the pitch of each one is and we could write a song to be played on swords.

Not watched the whole video yet but i can tell you that at least one Italian manual suggests to hit hard the flat of the blade on water or a plain wooden plank, in a way that the whole blade hits the surface at the same time. If it resists, the blade is good.

I would personally love just a video of you seeing how swords sound and how the different rigs sound lol

This video made me love cutlasses more

I think you should add the Matt Easton "Ring" to every video you talk about a new sword.

can you suggest a good knife maker you like around Canada area love tods work but like you say by time it getts here its way to expensive

When they finally tell you guys to turn in your swords; dangle them in bunches, and say you have a wind chime collection.

Swordmaker: Hello, police? This crazy customer keeps stabbing holes in the wall of my store...

Newest channel music from the sword xylophone with Matt Easton

Not only do they not show the tempering, but they don't even let the contestants do their own tempering. I can't imagine why.

Can you quench it to spring steel and then again only edge quench it to make the edge even harder but the blade still as flexible?

How long does one of your classes on tuesdays last? Just curious. I’m trying to set up to attend next month while I’m in London, if you get my email I sent.

i wondered if he meant if you are at a show and looking at a sword to buy, how do you access its quality.

Next Video: Matt builds a xylophone out of swords and plays the classics!

RPG insight: if you just escaped from your cell and find a sleeping guard you're going to first want to kill the guard before testing the sword.

it has been hardened and tempered. a quenched blade wouldnt flex before it broke however there are differing degrees of hardness after tempering

Fantastic video ! Matt did British cutlasses change over time like the regulation patterns? Also do they have the same blade design ? ( Because this one looks really different ) cheers !

When I heard the question the context as I understood it was maximus from the film gladiator; as he is sent into a room full of weapons and armour, he choses his iconic helmet, and then presumably would walk along the sword rack, dozens of regularly used tools of the trade, how would he decide which one to take before being let loose in the arena. I would imagine he would know some things to quickly check, like the bell test making sure the handle is attached and the sword wasn't shipped in from china via ebay, where by his blade separates from the handle mid-swing, launching itself onto a platter of grapes in the upper class seating areas; leaving everybody entertained by his untimely impalement by a trident wielding madman,

I know the Rockwell of the knives I make and feel confident that I could scratch the tip of my knife near the edge of the sword and get a rough hardness idea in a non destructive way