> How are they not better? I'm pretty sure European swords never had that neat feature of higher hardness at the blade than at the back side, giving the sword b

> How are they not better? I'm pretty sure European swords never had that neat feature of higher hardness at the blade than at the back side, giving the sword better strength while still staying sharp on the cutting edge. I'm not sure where you got that idea. Any well made sword of that era would have a softer core and harder edges. Japanese swordsmiths used folding to do that, a type of pattern welding. At the time swordsmiths all across Europe and Asia were using different, equally good pattern welding techniques. The Japanese technique was one of the more complicated ones, because they had worse iron. Damascus blades are the best example of pattern welding. They were made of the highest quality steel (at the time). Japaneses swords were well made, and comparable to European swords of the time, but not better or worse.