How does medieval steel compare to modern steel?

[greater]

The viking swords you speak of would have been the Ulfberht blades made of imported "Wootz" possibly closely replicated (steel wise) by Rosellis UHC which indeed is a good steel even by the standards of today.

I've seen a few studies/papers which show that Japanese smiths were able to create a very good carbon steel (at least at the cutting edge) comparible to modern simple carbon steels.

The Viking steel is a mystery steel even to this day. They have done all sorts of tests and have learned a lot but they still do not fully understand how it was made. One thing I can figure out from what they said is the manufacturing methods are neither easy nor economically practical by today's standards. That is for both Japanese (I think they know quite a bit more how that was made) and Viking sword steel.

 

[HJA]

The Viking steel is a mystery steel even to this day.

No it isn't. Al Pendray (RIP) recreated Wootz crucible steel.

 

[Hal]

I don't care what anyone says.......

This fat old man isn't taking on any Berserker with nothing less than a Remington 870!

 

[madcap_magician]

I still don't want to get stabbed in my best liver even if it is with some medieval steel.

Ok, but what about your second best liver?

 

[Alberta Ed]

There's quite a bit of information on wootz (Wikipedia). Ingots from India were highly prized -- I believe the ore had a bit of vanadium in it. The ore, or possibly porous iron that had been hammered to reduce slag, was packed into crucibles along with green plant material, then sealed with clay. Dozens or more crucibles were packed into a furnace and heated until the ore melted. The resulting egg-sized ingots were highly prized for making swords.

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

This. As was previously mentioned medieval sword making was far more art than science and the quality was wildly variable... and we have a tiny sample size. That said, lets not delude ourselves. Firstly in general knife makers in general make lousy swordsmiths. A sword is not merely a big knife. A medieval sword smith would make a better sword than most modern makers even if his steel and heat treat were not as good because he would know what a sword of his era was supposed to do and what sort of defenses it would be required to overcome. There's a vast difference in a sword from 1100 and one from 1200. Second if one took say a L6 or whatever sword back in time to a medieval battlefield with illusions of grandeur I suspect that you would quickly find yourself skewered by your much stronger, much faster and far better trained opponent who would be oblivious to the fact that he should be awed by your superior steel.

Well, since medieval swordsmiths did not have the internet, they did not realize the importance of super steels.