The goal of this work is to study the microstructure and the production process of historical steels. Two tie-rods fragments, probably fabricated in the XVII century, and a XVI century sword, were examined, mainly by means of optical metallography and microhardness testing. Moreover, a second phase extraction and analysis procedure have been attempted, and a thermo-metallurgical model of a possible partial quenching and self-tempering heat treatment of the sword have been developed.