wood working machines
Another important aspect of many blades are so-called "fullers". Despite popular belief, fullers were not "blood grooves" that facilitated quicker bleeding of the victim and easier removal after insertion. Rather fullers helped to make a blade stronger and more durable at the core by giving it an I beam cross section, thus reducing the amount of steel needed to keep the spine stiff. This was very important in ancient times when high quality steel was more labor intensive to make, smiths would scrape the fuller with a U shaped tool before hardening and reuse the scraps. Modern day fullers are made by positioning a heated blade over a bottom fuller (metalworking), setting a like sized top fuller on the top side of the sword, and hitting the top fuller with a hammer.
