Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-32765490-20180501161434/@comment-26172435-20180501195556

Quenching is the rapid cooling of hot materials. In smithing this is used to ensure the smelt is not crystallizing, or at least, to only a minimum extent. Metal(-oxide) crystallisation is the root cause of brittleness in forged metal. If you are not aware of the full metallurgical process and all its aspects, it will be hard discussing this in simple terms and even harder to derive broadly acceptable conclusions regarding the general characteristics of the typical 'bronze' and 'iron' gear parts in use in TA Middle-earth. :)