The properties of steel mean that it can be either hard and brittle or soft and strong. When making a weapon such as a sword it was vitally important to create the correct ballance of hardness and strength. The harder the steel, the sharper the edge could be. However, such a hard sword was likely to break if struck firmly, such as would happen when striking another sword in combat.
Many of the best swords actually used a combination, where the edge was hardened to a greater degree than the rest of the blade. This meant that the sword was strong and sharp, but when struck, large portions of the blade would break away.
Recently a metallurgist and a chemist have claimed that they have recreated the process required to create damascus steel, but even they do not understand how it really works. Apparently 1 in 4 batches fail.
See pattern welding, sword