saw-like edge is
better suited for cutting flesh, ropes, etc., than a very fine edge
would be.

A comparatively soft steel does well enough for the heavy cutlass used
for cutting lead or dividing a sheep, and the edge, though sharp and
keen, need not, and, indeed, cannot, approach the razor-edge necessary
for cutting a silk pocket-handkerchief or a feather.

_Every_ edge, when closely examined by a microscope, presents a more or
less saw-like and jagged appearance. It is merely a question of
_degree_, and, in a sword to be used for ordinary cutting and thrusting,
you want to secure hardness sufficient to produce a good edge and an
instant return to its former shape after any reasonable bending, and you
want to avoid anything like brittleness or liability to snap. If the
disposition of the molecules is such as to give too great hardness, the
blade, though capable of taking a fine edge, will probably snap, or the
edge will crack and shiver on meeting any hard obstacle. For example, if
you put razor steel into a cutlass, and then try to cut lead, the blade
will either snap off or the edge will break away in large pieces. If, on
the other hand, you make the blade of too soft steel, the edge will be
readily dented or turned on one side.

Though there are wonderful reports of the excellence of Eastern blades
manufactured at Damascus, it is probable that European work was quite as
good, and that the tempering of steel was quite as well understood at
Toledo, in Spain, where, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
splendid rapiers were produced. It seems highly probable that the rapier
was an extension or refinement of the earlier heavy cut-and-thrust
sword, because, though the superior value of the point was beginning
then to assert itself, there was an evident attempt to preserve in the
rapier the strength and cutting properties of the long straight sword of
a previous time.

The Italian and Spanish rapiers were sometimes of great length, three
feet or three feet six inches and more in the blade, and they were often
beautifully finished, the work of the hilts being frequently both
elaborate and costly. The blade itself, which was double-edged and
inclined to be flat, tapered gradually from hilt to point, and was
strengthened by a ridge running almost its entire length.

The French duelling-sword of modern days is sometimes spoken of as a
"rapier;" but this is incorrect, as the popular Gallic dispute-settler
is thre