I'm here for the cat, but while at it, it ticks me off to see this blatant propagation of misinformation and ignorance. Clearly this mangaka didn't even google 5 minutes about forging/balcksmithing before making a fucken blacksmithing manga with a fucken blacksmith MC.
@Vincentius
It's steel swords you don't cast... Though, technically speaking, you can, but you'll get a pretty subpar blade out of it because you introduced enough carbon that it's basically cast iron at that point
dude, you too seem clueleless about it.
So, for the sake of anyone reading this, get this shit stright:
[ol]Iron + Carbon = Steel[/ol]
[ol]Iron when cast, stays iron.[/ol]
[ol]Steel when cast becomes iron or a very poor steel because carbon gets oxidized and goes away as CO2.[/ol]
[ol]Forging is the proces of incorporating carbon, reducing the steel grain size and eliminating impurities (as in small-particles of non-metal stuff that doesn't bind to the iron, like sand/silicon, big particles of carbon, etc)[/ol]
[ol]Other impurities that DO bind to iron, like sulphur, are something that has to be dealt with chemically while melting the iron.[/ol]
[ol]Iron swords are as good as what you could get out of making a cheap tableware knife made of a strightened tuna-can. It will NOT retain it's edge, and bends easily.[/ol]
[ol]Steel when cooled abruptly develops intermolecular strains that make it very hard, but brittle like glass[/ol]
So, if you simply forge a good chunk of Iron into high grade steel, shape it like a sword and quench it... when parrying a heavy blow your sword will break and your head will make a solid "thud" in the ground before the tip-most half of the sword finally lands on the ground.
So, before going to any adventure, please consult with your closest expert blacksmith. Don't trust your misinformed "common sense".