Actually, the iron they were able to refine wasn't terrifically pure because of the source they had for it, sand. The folding wouldn't have done anything to m

Actually, the iron they were able to refine wasn't terrifically pure because of the source they had for it, sand. The folding wouldn't have done anything to make pure iron into a better blade. What all that folding did do, however, is ensure that all the impurities in the metal were evenly distributed throughout the blade, thus allowing lower quality metal to be used to make high quality blades.