In the Television series "Forged in Fire", people that have been blacksmiths for years seem to have trouble making their weapons without glaring defects in them. Was this the case during different ages in history as well? Could the average weapon in any given time period also have glaring defects?

by yanksin1st

The blacksmiths on the show are usually pressed for time, but towards the end of every show, the two finalists are tasked with making an ancient historical weapon, in their own shop, that they are given five days to do. I'm by no means a blacksmith, but 5 days seems like a fair amount of time to craft any given weapon. How was this feasible on a large scale, such as when an ancient Greek army needed to be outfitted with swords to fight a war? How long would it take for, say, 500 Xiphos Sword to be made in time for battle? How much manpower was needed to craft the right amount of weapons in time?

alice-in-canada-land

Did you know Reddit has a sub for blacksmiths?

If you don't get a satisfactory answer here, you might want to ask your questions at r/blacksmithing. The folks there may not be able to give historical sources, but they may be able to explain more about how the process works.

RagdollFizzixx

Any job that is pressed for time will sacrifice quality, not just in black smithing.