Reading through the earlier posts in another thread (which has since wandered far afield) I noticed some ideas I see as wrong.
Coal is not needed to make good steel, the only time coal and coke made from coal are needed are for blast furnaces, and blast furnaces are really only important are for an industrial revolution level of production.
For all but the last three centuries of steel making on Earth the fuel has been charcoal, for traditional Japanese sword making it still is the only fuel.
There are trees on Chaos, so charcoal is no problem.
Two of Argon's stories Bente the Collier and Pelle the Collier will give you an idea of both how important charcoal was and how simple making it really is.
For much of Earth's history bog iron was the major source of iron.
Making high carbon steel is simple; surround the steel with charcoal and heat it while keeping oxygen away from it, the carbon from the charcoal will migrate into the steel. This is known as case hardening and can result in a high carbon region depth up to about 1/8 inch (3mm).
A sword does not need to be as sharp as a knife, especially when used against unarmored or lightly armored opponents, so hardness and edge holding are also less important than for a knife, the bio-mechanical advantage of the greater length gives the strike more speed and thus more force.
Realistically a bronze sword will work nearly as well in that use as one made of steel.
