The sword is the perennial symbol of empires, knighthood, chivalry and fantasy. But it’s also one of the world’s most ancient technologies, connected with breakthroughs in metallurgy that would change ...

The curved steel blades gleamed in the soft gallery lighting, as sharp and vicious-looking as when each was forged hundreds of years ago. The swords were the primary weapons of the samurai, the ...

Producers of a History Channel documentary made a mock-up of medieval European armor consisting of 1/16th-inch steel plating, backed by a quarter-inch of leather, backed by chainmail. The test? To ...