Hello all

First, I apologize if this topic was opened somewhere else, if so is because I couldn't find it. Does anyone here own or handled the Del Tin Pompeii gladius? I was looking at it for couple days and wondered if sword components back then were made of wood, then wouldn't it crack if suffer from some sort of a heavy impact? But again is that the case in modern sword making technology? So the main question comes down to how well are the Del Tin gladius in terms of their wooden components.

Thanks for replying!

-Ed

P.S and also please pardon my incompetence on lacking the knowledge of the Roman gladius.

This might help:

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/gladius.html

As David said, wood was typical for Roman hilts, though bone and ivory were also used. Grips were more commonly bone. Other cultures used wood and bone hilt parts as well, so it's not like the Romans were unusual in this regard.

My own gladius is a Del Tin, though I've had it for over 20 years so I don't know what might be different on the current model. I also have not done any real cutting with it, so can't tell you anything about its durability.

Matthew

Some extant gladius have a packing of leather in some areas and some have the handles packed with moss. Whether this is to stop them loosening up, shock absorbancy or something else i don't know. But on many gladius I have used the wooden pommel has split straight across. However they were through the middle of a centralised bit of wood (ash) rather than a bit turned from a section of a billet as tol handles should ideally be.

Griff