Yeah the idea that the Japanese, as good as they are, were better at making swords than Europeans is nonsense. Are they better today? Well heck yes...by a huge margin. But that is because the Japanese have rigorously made a priority of preserving that skill, and still honor it today. Europeans are not like that. As soon as firearms came along, all their energy went in that direction and swordsmithing skills fell to near zero in probably just a couple of generations.
The fact is, the medieval knight was just as reliant on his sord as the Samurai. The swords of let's say 1200 were extremely sophisticated and were probably the most technologically sophisticated objects extant in the medieval world. They took as much care to make them as the Japanese swordsmiths did and do today. They went through a lot of the same processes, metalurgical and otherwise (blessings, etc). The sword probably cost as much as an estate or a sawmill or something back in those days. The thing you see in the movies, all the peasant soldiers with swords never happened. They had spears and axes which were orders of magnitude easier to make.
Sharpening? Just like today. Abrasive medium of probably nearly as various as today with the exception of diamond mediums and the synthetic stones like carborundum. All kinds of natural stones, strops, steels, files, etc.
The fact is, the medieval knight was just as reliant on his sord as the Samurai. The swords of let's say 1200 were extremely sophisticated and were probably the most technologically sophisticated objects extant in the medieval world. They took as much care to make them as the Japanese swordsmiths did and do today. They went through a lot of the same processes, metalurgical and otherwise (blessings, etc). The sword probably cost as much as an estate or a sawmill or something back in those days. The thing you see in the movies, all the peasant soldiers with swords never happened. They had spears and axes which were orders of magnitude easier to make.
Sharpening? Just like today. Abrasive medium of probably nearly as various as today with the exception of diamond mediums and the synthetic stones like carborundum. All kinds of natural stones, strops, steels, files, etc.