More tempered stuff @ Strongblade!

I think some of these swords are Windlass swords that Strongblade are retailing. For example, the "Icingdeath--The Sword of Drizzt" is not the licensed version, but the MRL Two Hand Falchion. Not that there is anything wrong with them selling Windlass products. I just wanted to point out that not all of Strongblade's "battle ready" swords are made by Strongblade.

Thanks, I did not know that. It is not apparent since this is not indicated in the product names on the page linked.

Hmm, on their site when describing what tempering is they do actually make the distinction between it and hardening... points for that considering people recently seem to be making a mistake there.
Are these swords actually hardened or just tempered?

In the broadest and hopefully the simplest terms, hardening occurs when the steel is heated to a high temperature and then cooled relatively quickly. When additional tempering processes are applied, it is to reduce the hardness a bit while adding ductility, thereby reducing brittleness. This is done after the quench/cooling and is basically holding the steel at a moderately raised temperature for a given amount of time.

A differentially hardened blade with no futher tempering process applied could still be considered to have a resultant temper of edge and body, thereby giving some credence to those that use the term diffrentially tempered when describing clay coated Japanese style blades that have been quenched only. It does add to the confusion a bit and lead to a lot of senseless bickering but often only by those that are overthinking it, or only have pieces of information.

One might also read of the process of a blade being only edge quenched. This would be only the cutting edge being exposed to the cooling medium.

There is also differential tempering when only certain portions of a blade are manipulated through heat after a through hardening.

There are steels that are termed air quench, oil quench and water quench steels. In the general overall sword market, one is going to be seeing mostly oil and water quenched steels. Quenching is the process of that first cooling from a relatively high temperature that actually hardens the steel. Temper is either the result of only that first step, or additional cycles as described above.

To sum up with a one line answer.

A tempered blade has been hardened first.

Cheers

Hotspur; I am not a metallurgist, smith or general student of metalwork but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night