back uninjured. The swords of Andrea de Ferrara did this, and were
accordingly in great request; for it was of every importance to the
warrior that his weapon should be strong and sharp without being
unwieldy, and that it should not be liable to snap in the act of
combat. This celebrated smith, whose personal identity*
[footnote...
The precise time at which Andrea de Ferrara flourished cannot be
fixed with accuracy; but Sir Waiter Scott, in one of the notes to
Waverley, says he is believed to have been a foreign artist brought
over by James IV. or V. of Scotland to instruct the Scots in the
manufacture of sword-blades. The genuine weapons have a crown marked
on the blades.
...]
has become merged in the Andrea de Ferrara swords of his manufacture,
pursued his craft in the Highlands, where he employed a number of
skilled workmen in forging weapons, devoting 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 upon the metal, and to watch the nicety of the operation of
tempering, as well as possibly to serve as a screen to his secret
method of working.*
[footnote...
Mr. Parkes, in his Essay on the Manufacture of Edge Tools, says, "Had
this ingenious artist thought of a bath of oil, he might have heated
this by means of a furnace underneath it, and by the use of a
thermometer, to the exact point which he found necessary; though it
is inconvenient to have to employ a thermometer for every distinct
operation. Or, if he had been in the possession of a proper bath of
fusible metal, he would have attained the necessary certainty in his
process, and need not have immured himself in a subterranean