How do One-Power forged blades work?

wrt Aes Sedai-forged weapons, like Lan's sword that never needs sharpening: was the Power just used in the manufacturing process, to change the structure of the steel to make it extra-strong, or was a flow of the Power somehow incorporated into the steel?

"The Power was used in blending the metals (and other materials...) and altering the structure. There is no source of the Power in these weapons, nor do they draw on the Power like angreal...."from RJ letter 4/95

In the same letter, RJ said that when a Fadeblade strikes Power-wrought metal, the reaction produces blue sparks. This 1) implies that Fadeblades are power-wrought metal (The 2 Fades duelling during the fight in the Stone in TSR) and 2) implies that Thom Merrilin had power-wrought daggers during the incident in Whitebridge.

This FAQ compiled by Pam Korda (kor2@midway.uchicago.edu) and converted to HTML by Matthew Hunter (mhunter+@andrew.cmu.edu).