Following the 'Affordable pattern welded sword blade' thread.

A fellow member of the Early Medieval Group that I belong, Dennis Riley attended on a recent conference lecture titled 'Current Thinking in Anglo-Saxon Iron Production and Use' and produced his own small report on the conferance for interested Group members. In a footnote he states 'a find of a pattern welded sword from Bamburgh Castle was calculated to have been made up from approximetly 72 strips of iron and steel'

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Dave

I would like to know if he commented on the pattern of the sword itself. i.e. Was the center made from twisted rods?

Accordingly to "Reclaiming the blade" doccumentary, central core of this sword is made of "six strads of iron which are worked and twisted and welded togeather".

Indeed Artis , my friend, ever the old cynic replied ' re;- the bamburgh sword, it was a foot note in the conference and was unfortunatly not expanded upon (merely a passing comment), i cant remember which speaker made the comment but you have to take it on face value, he was an archaeologist and they are sometimes prone to guilding the lily! '

:lol:

Perhaps the speaker is aware of research developments into the sword.

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Dave

What I make up out of the description (like is article http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/Bamb...1578708.jp) is that it's got 6 billets of probably torsion damast (described as "six strands of carburized iron"). The news articles on the sword describe it as a one of a kind, as others have 4. Naturally anyone familiar with patternwelded swords will know that 6 billets is not at all unique, and actually quite common particularly amongst older blades.

As Patrick Barta's displays very well in his pattern welded sword production on his web site,although the forging/welding of the components of each billet does not appear to be shown as I recall.
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Dave

I have held this blade (or stump thereof) and it is as unremarkable as any piece of rusty metal in the corner of the forge floor .
The X-rays however are truly beautifull , It is indeed 6 core of interupted twists and possably 6 over a centre strip over 6 . The X-rays I saw were not binocular so I could not tell if it was 6 or 6 over 6 . The twisting was neat and finley executed .It is on my list to remake and must have been a Northrumbrian treasure in its time .

An article in the Burwick Advertiser published on 21 June 2006: http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/Bamb...1578708.jp said The Royal Armouries was intending to do a 3D image of the sword. Has this been done yet?

It wonder how recent the data about the number of strands is. The idea of a huge number of strands being forged into one piece is one I heard quite a bit about in older material sources, but most recent tests and documentation usually steers away from it. One test I heard about where dozen of strips were tied together and attempted to be forge welded together was a catastrophic failure so unless I hear more detailed information I'm probably going to write it off as either old data or untested supposition.

Yes I fully agree with you, however I was bringing up the point that the idea of many strands of wire is an older theory not often espoused recently (largely due to practical tests) when a lot of the material was scholarly and conjectural usually without the benefit of hands on testing. Because of this I am guessing the number of strands cited in the document about the Bamburg sword is either outdated or based off older source material.

Hello All,
For those interested in the Bamburgh sword I would refer you to a possible reconstruction here:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=18365


Has Dennis Riley published anything on Anglo-Saxon iron? I'd like to read it.

Ric