Lee, thank you for coming in! and I have been going through your amazing book trying to get a better grasp on this esoterica, and it gets more fascinating every run I have at it!
As we have discussed and you well note, while the theory of the use of the Eastern crucible steel being used for the remarkable blades of the ULFBERHT genre being the source for their strength and soundness...the truth may be closer to home.
It appears that perhaps the Franks realized that the small furnaces used in smelting the bloomery steel used could not produce the heat and time required to absorb adequate carbon. By adding a second step the carbon content was increased.
Obviously this simplification reveals my limited grasp of metallurgy, but what I have read notes that most of the Frankish blades we are discussing have remarkable carbon content, far higher than contemporary blades elsewhere.
The note on the variation in placement of the + in the ULFBERHT inlay on many blades does suggest a different shop, using the renowned name much in the manner of the centuries later ANDREA FERARA mystique, among others. The instances of ME FECIT occurring with other names occurring such as INGELRII does lean toward makers or shops as opposed to suggestions of invocations, which in some degree might have had some bearing.
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