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Pete,
That sounds like very traditional Norse sword making.
Carbon content of steel while forging is controlled by what kind of fire the steel is heated in.
All forge fires "back in the day" were made using charcoal and the carbon migration from fuel to iron at high temperatures made it possible to add enough carbon to steel to make it strong and tough. This was still a very long process.
A reducing atmosphere (fuel rich) will slowly add carbon and an oxidizing atmosphere (O2 rich) will take carbon away. The smiths had to know what they were doing even if they couldn't explain it.
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