this works, too... :)

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Thats funny how simillar tool we use, i have the drill with spindle whorl and also the bit for dremel :-)

Great info about the bone black too! thanks for that!
Do you by any chance know Harm Paulsen and other people from Opinn Skjold?

i have a collection of ring dot drill bits too, and for my Dremel!!! i use charcoal and beeswax in my grooves and also rust (iron) verdigree (Copper) and all sorts of other colours ,but black does generally do the best, its nice hearing from other boneworkers! do you have any techniques for doing drills with more than one ring? i've always thought more than one ring and you have one point one side and the other(excluding the centre bit) further out than the other, sound right to you?

Thanks so much for the info on dot-circle tool & bone-black!

Christian Böhling wrote:

You can use any tool, you can use for woodworking and metalworking. But I wonder if hammering a wire into it will not damaging it....

I wonder about that too. However, I know wire inlay in bone is possible & was done historically (there's an example in the book, Medieval Knives & Scabbards of tin wire inlay in a bone knife handle ).

Thanks,
Dustin

I used a smaller bit and a wider bit, first made the smaller circle, than put the wider one over the ornament and drilled again...

thanks for your info, i'll certainly gie it a try! i do agree, this possibly could become a different topic alltogether, never realised there were so many interested in bonework hidden in the shadows!

Now I started another topic Iron-Age Crafts here http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=184546#184546

There we can discuss all non weapon-related iron-age finds, like combs et cetera...

So we can continue this thread discussing the iron-age weapons :)

No, sorry. Most of the Illerup book are with Søren in Kopenhagen. I only have the two on spathae blades.

So....after a while, here are the first impressions on the Thorsberg-Sword
She is not finished yet, the wooden parts have to be waxed. But all in all, i am satisfied with this little beauty...

Hope you like her, too! The rivets are not perfect symmetrical, but the original ones were not, too! So this is I think the original was meant.

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the rivets at the lower wood part on this image look not horizontal, but they are, don´t know...photo-perspective.

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Nice work Christian.
Brings a smile to my face.

I have this impression that the germanic hilts often had a thin leather cover over the pommel and guard (and grip in those cases when it was just wood). These nails are spaced over the surface in a way that it seems like an intention to distribute the stress of keeping leather taut over the surface. The deeply cut groves in the direction of the edge also seem perfect to keep two halves of leather pressed down while the leather cures.
(Perhaps even roman sword hilts were finished like this, in those cases when only wood was used?)

The leather would have been of a thin kind. Possibly gut leather. Since this type of leather was used to cover shields, it was a material and technique that was commonly in use. The transculent leather allows for coloring of the wood below the leather and the surface will take a wax or fat very readily, allowing effective proofing against wetness.

Just my private theory.
I know that no leather as survived, but that is also the case with the shields: no leather cover has survived. Tests has shown that a thin gut leather most probably have been used, even if no actual trace of the leather now survives. Edge bands around the rim of the shields would also have been effective in sealing the leather and keeping it in place. Sometimes also small holes as from stitching around the rim.
In the case of sword hilts we have the plentiful use of rivets and domed tacks, plus otherwise mysterious semi-circle shaped narrow iron bands along the edge of pommels and guards.

What do you think of this theory?

Yes, Peter, I am with you in this theory!! At first I wanted to do with leather, but I made it as the original has survived, tried to not interprete too much here....but the next (and I will do this one again in Summer!) will be with leather, so that the Chasuari can discuss it with the public at their public gigs and explain experimental archaeology then! This is my plan - first one without interpretation, second with suggestions. And I believe in leather, too! So this example is a "know" one, next will be a "believe" one. And these will be the names of this swords: "Know" and "believe". Have to search for the germanic words for it. :)

But I think I met the proportions exept the rivets are a bit too big...


EDIT: When I first thought at doing this with leather, I made a few trials and I was not very satisfied with it. We have all different leather types here at our ironage-house, well natural made and some thin and stretchable, but it was not easy to get it covering the pommel in a way we would like :( I have to do other experiments. But now and without it gives a good impression of the original hilt from Thorsbjerg Mose as it repeats the woven brass cover and the rivets and the proportions - thats waht this is about. BTW: this seems to be the only brass woven hilt, and to decide me to make this piece has a story:
There is a woman in the Chasuari Group who is very much inside weaving and dying techniques. She is the expert in cloth. And she is a colleque of mine at my work. When she asked me to do early 3rd century stuff for her, I immediately decided to make the Thorsberg piece because of it´s woven brass cover. I saw that the original craftsman had make some mistakes (as he tried to keep one pattern). I decided to take the pattern of the middle of the grip and keep it at the whole rest the same... Will do te scabbard tomorrow and tomorrow evening she will get her Sword.
It is made of C60 Steel and very light. She will love it!

Cheers

Chris