Don't forget that your friends are probably not really having blades made with 14th century technology, because there's no one out there except a few hobbyists producing steel in this fashion (wind-powered hilltop furnaces and such.) Most people who ARE using the old smithing techniques are using scrap metal, which is still modern steel. And frankly, there are a lot of BS artists at SCA and Renaissance Faire events.
No, most ancient steels were not in the same class as the carefully-controlled alloys of today. But there were artists capable of creating marvellous things. Wootz, in some respects, has never been equalled. When it was rediscovered there was talk of using it in aerospace applications where modern alloy steel would have been cheaper. It didn't work out, as far as I know, because they haven't figured out how to produce it in large amounts. I suppose that's disappointing, but to a small-time smith who enjoys the art there's something comforting about it.
Much is made about the old Japanese steel used in swords and the magical properties imparted by folding it. In truth, the folding may have increased the strength somewhat by allowing a bit more flexibility at the same thickness, but it seems to my non-expert mind that its main purpose was to spread out and assimilate areas of impurity created by the use of Japanese "Iron Sands" to make the steel. In other words, all the careful folding was simply what had to be done to make the steel useful for sword smithing. Make no mistake--I am not questioning the amazing skills of Japanese smiths at the height of their importance. They created wonderful stuff for the time, and their work would compare favorably with the best things being made today. But no, the steel they had to work with was not in the same league as what Don Fogg, for instance, uses today. They accomplished what they did despite bad steel.
