Shit, even in one on one martial combat, give me range and I'll take it. Knife < Sword < Spear < Bow

By the time of 3m pikes most infantry would be receiving pretty decent training.

Wait, you mean it's not because it gives me the ability to part steel plate in a single slash?

As I understand it, it wasn't to work the carbon out of it, but instead to simply evenly spread the impurities throughout the whole sword, so there weren't any specific points of weakness

Obligatory "It wasn't folded 1000 times, it was folded 11 times giving it more than a thousand folds." Fun fact, the older traditional Japanese forges were basically assembled from mud found right there on the rivers where they found their low grade iron, and this process was kept alive by spiritualism and tradition conservatives, so it's honestly a miracle they assembled anything long and sharp at all. Most of the iron in Japan is considered low grade Pyrite at only 46% iron, while other places in the world had access to Magnetite with up to 72% iron before any refining.

the bow and arrow is just a logical extension of mankind's desire to poke each other at ever longer range.

Gotta have that reach.

Aliens see us as the water balloon planet.

I think a shield and sword together are better than a spear https://youtu.be/uLLv8E2pWdk?si=vXiyUTTnSbIq-vC8

The sword is the pistol of ancient times whereas the sprear is the assault rifle.

In fairness, this would give you 1024 layers ;)

Sir, your fedora is showing

But really, its a sword not noodles (which are folded when made by hand)

Pointy end goes into the other man

That dude from the Office?

Sharpening a stick regardless of length is probably one of the easiest ways to get a weapon