The article seems incongruent to me, but I have no much knowledge of the subject. Swords made with iron would not shatter like that, unless having many impurities and inclusions, and hardening them in cold water would give only a very small hardness to the iron. On the other side, they donīt mention "wootz", only crucible steel. Swords were made with crucible steel not being wootz, but with this carbon content they would be very brittle. I understand that toughtness of wootz with itīs carbon content is due to the fact that it has a perlite matrix. The "Viking solution", as I recall, consists in making blades with an iron body, and only the edges, mechanically welded to the body, were made of steel. That would not make a fragile blade. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Regards
Gonzalo
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