A bizarre thought on sword making

[MARCVS PETRONIVS MAIVS]

As for the metalurgical soundness of including calcium into the sword, this is obviously a drawback, but as Robert said above, this could be done by melting the calcium or bones and mingling them with the molten iron.

Iron was not completely molten in ancient ironworking. It was hot-forged from a bloom. I'm not sure you can melt calcium, either! Either way, the whole reason that iron was heated and hammered repeatedly was to remove impurities, so adding new impurities would not have made much sense to the blacksmiths.

My first question with a theory like this is if there are any ancient references to such a practice. If not, and if there are no archeological traces, then you're right, it's pretty much a fantasy idea.

Vale,

Matthew

Exactly, that was pretty much my query, if this has been documented to happen and what where the chances of it happening!

But it does sound like something a corny hollywood producer would pick up on!