They were forged, maybe filed a bit, then ground to true them up to a basic pattern, and even up the surface. If you will research a bit, you will find that most all of the producers of cutlery had water power to run their grinders. At the time they were made, forging was the most practical method of shaping steel, at least to bring it to a general shape. forging was also the most economical way to use a minimum amount of steel, which was somewhat a precious and expensive item then. Unfortunatly, today, many believe any forged steel item is superior in performance to other methods of steel shaping, but that is completely erroneous, except in the case of springs, or other items that require extreme curvature. Forging acually adds no qualities to steel except in the case of needing to have the grain flow with a radical curve. The grain is permanently set when steel bars are rolled to shape at the foundary. Only heat can change the internal structure of these grains for any good outcome, or bad, depending on how it is applied. I have noticed a few smiths are forge working cast tomahawk heads to improve them. They are acually doing little, to nothing in bettering the casting, unless they happen to close a tiny air pocket or two. They are not changing the direction of the grains. That is set, and cannot be changed, which in a casting are aimed anywhere, and nowhere in general. Steel/iron cannot be compressed, so forget the notion of "pack hardening", Simple physics. Unless there are inclusions, or pockets, and then, all that is being done is to close these pockets. The steel itself is unchanged. Heat can grow grain, making it weaker, or shrink grain, making it stronger, but all that depends on how the heat is applied. High heat produces large grains because small grains merge to become large grains. With proper control of the heat, this condition is reversed. To see this, break a quality file. The grain structure is so fine as to acually not be seen as individual grains without magnification. Then heat one piece of that to a yellow heat and quench, break again, and you will see the individual grains if you look closely. If you purchase an item, only because it was hand forged, and you want it that way because that is how it was done then, fine. If you purchase an item hand forged only because you believe it superior, you have wasted your money. All the superior qualties in steel are in the heat treament, not the hammer. And what Necchi said.
