As a hobbyst blacksmith for 5 years i can share my experience.
Nowdays, most blades, even the quality ones, are usually grinded from steel bllanks, and usually forging is limited to minimum. Its the heat-treat that makes all the difference, and to be able to even think of heat-treating, you need good medium-high carbon steel. There are a few common myths about effects of forging on the material, some of them are true, some are not. Does forging make the material better? Kinda.
First, forging has almost no effect on pure iron. If iron has a tiny adition of carbon in it, then we can call it low carbon steel. It cannot be heat treated, and is softer in raw state than raw med or high C.S., but it can be hardened by forging, while pure iron canot. But, heating the steel to forging temperatures, or heat-treating temperatures resets most changes to the blade, including stress - and most effects of forge-hardening.
Now, less theory, and more about what could be included in game.
Right now, even best melee weapons are forged from shit. But they require very high crafting skill (9, while 10 is almost a complete mastery). In real life, even medicore and not so experienced blacksmith could make a mono-steel katana, if he has good tools and starts from huge blank of good steel. But to make a good katana from scrap or even iron ore, carbonise it, remove inpurites, etc? THAT is hard.
Maybe we could make something like this: Weapons of grade above macheette require quality steel, or hardsteel, it can be aquired from springs, some tools, scrapped weapons, found in some material stores, OR can be crafted with high crafting skill (8-9). This way, if you have medium crafting skill, and wand to make a blade, you need to find some quality steel, but it shouldnt be TOO hard. And when youre a master - you can produce quality steel yourself.
