[Shane Allee]

Has anyone come across any research or study done with any kind of depth on the Geibig type 14? Specifically I am most interested in the early examples Petersen talks about without guards. These seem to be viewed as a transitional type and I'm interested in learning more about how these might have been hilted. He talks about them being developed from knives and starting to be hilted as swords early in the Viking period. Is this still the most commonly held believe, or has more recent evidence called this into question? Does anyone know the specifics of why he believed the examples "without guards" were hilted as knives instead of swords? I can't recall seeing any examples with any kinds of fittings or even remains of organics. Do these feature any signs of peening of the tang or were they simply a stick style tang? The idea of a tang being held by friction and glue on a full size sword might be a bit scary.

Shane