Finally getting this sword up on the website. I had it assembled for the gathering in Wisconsin, but had not even had the time to finish sanding it properly. Now it is done, for the time being at least. If I get time this winter between projects I will most likely decorate it in a similar fashion to the original hilt I did for this blade.

No comments about me saying that I didn't want to do any more rivet hilts after Nate's. *G* The more I studied the La Tene I swords the more I realized that is what most of them seem to be. It did give me a chance to do a different style of construction with the hilt being the two slabs of yew. Doing just a pommel plate instead of the typical guard plate was also very exciting to see how it worked out. Making the domes different sizes for the front and back was something I wasn't sure if I'd like or not, but now that it is done I'm very glad that I did. If I do the decorations I will probably also make them different from the front and back to make that distinction even more clear.

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Of course I have more pictures and information about the construction on the website.
http://www.ironagearmoury.com/latenerivithilt.htm

Right now I'm out of La Tene blades to mount and just have an old Del Tin and Albion viking blade, that I hoped to mount for myself at some point. I do have some steel that I am thinking about using to do the next couple blades myself. Mark is pretty busy with his own swords and some of the swords I've been thinking about would be good blades for me to start doing myself. So he can keep doing my fullered and mid-ribbed blades and I'm going to try some of the more basic styles myself. My next sword will most likely be a British La Tene with a crown guard plate similar to the Hod Hill. This will require me to find a good reliable bronze caster which I am not looking forward to having to deal with. After th British sword I am not sure, forging will be limited this winter so the falcata will have to wait, but a unique blade from the La Tene III might be an option or even one of the Irish 7th century swords with the expanded points.

Shane Allee

I absolutely love this one.

Amazing work.

Shane, I think you definitely have something here. Actual hilt plates as opposed to sectional(guard, grip pommel). Afterall these swords descended from the Halstatt era where that particular hilt construction was prevelant. Very nice and very interesting. I like it.

BS

Bravo for having recreated an northern italian sword. If I'm not wrong the original with that spine on the blade is in the Marzabotto's museum.

That's a great looking sword, the wood grain on the handle scales is really cool. The huge rivets really make it look extra tough.

Hey Shane,

Other than length, what are the gross statistics on this piece? Weight, CoG?
I can't stop looking at it, if that tells you anything . . . .

Thanks everyone.

I am really happy with the way this turned out. I wanted to do one, but at first I wasn't sure if it would really be my style or not. The size and shape of this blade was based on one in Navarro, but as I looked into the northern italian finds the more subtle curved points like this one showed up there as well.

Sometime this week I'll see if I can't get Nate's La Tene I up on our Gallico Belgae site and post it here as well. Mark did Nate's blade as well and we decided to each go with a look from different regions. Don't know why we didn't think to take a finished side by side picture of them at the gathering.

That is a good question John....*G* I'll get it out and get those for you.

Shane

Well if I trust my digital fish scales the sword is 2 lbs 5oz. Really should get something better...

Blade width is 2" at the hilt, grip length is 3", and the COG is about 7".

Shane

Thanks again John.

We got a couple pictures of Nate's La Tene I that he hilt up on his Gallico Belgae members page this weekend. Mark also made his blade, but he wanted one with the more aggressive point style. Nate used a similar construction method with ash, only he used a wrought iron guard plate. He liked the look that I was getting with the carved and burnt decorations on my first hilt so he wanted to do something on his as well. He went with a more shallow design then what I had done though. Also he picked designs that were more fitting for a sword from the Northern France. The style of dragon pairs that he picked was very specific to that region.

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He did a very nice job on his as well and hasn't really had a chance to show it off much yet. It works out nice that we can show people how even two swords from the same period that are very similar can still be given looks that make them very distinct and show regional variations.

Shane

Currently I am having my blade re-ground a bit by Mark. I wanted it sharp, with the flats thinned out a bit. (Now that it is hilted it can be handled while sharp) So it will be interesting to see how the numbers look compared to Shane's when it is thin-edged and sharp. Mine also has a tang length that is almost an inch shorter than Shane's, as I wanted to get the length exact to the particular historical blade that was copied.
N

Shane Allee wrote:

Well if I trust my digital fish scales the sword is 2 lbs 5oz. Really should get something better... Blade width is 2" at the hilt, grip length is 3", and the COG is about 7". Shane

Oh, I whacked off some of the tang from what I originally had it made. It ended up being 25mm shorter than the tang of the sword 4 in plate II of The Finds at the Site of La Tene and overall dead on to the measurements of 2 in plate I with the same blade shape. That is kind of cool really since I hadn't checked to see what it all worked out to be once I got it finished.

Shane

Did some cutting with this the past weekend. Despite a very high midrib (mayeb one of the highest on the market) , we were able to get some good through-and-through cuts on 2-liters and milk jugs. Early on there was some backspash effect, but as we warmed up and rusty technique went a little more smoothly, it cut very nicely.

Of course, it was just a beast when thrusting :D