[Oswald Boelcke]

I received the attached photo from the friend of a friend etc.. It seems that these are prototypes of celtic style swords. While they may not be historically authentic, they are very beautiful, and I sure would like to have one. Rumor has it that a company in India is preparing the production, but I found no other info on the net. Has anyone heard anything about these swords like who is the manufacturer, when and where will they be available?

[Joel Chesser]

Something about them screams Deepeeka to me. That would fit with the India production. They remind be a lot of the Lancelot swords from the Disney Kind Arthur movie that came out awhile back. The grips seem to have a heavy baselard influence.

[Antonio Lamadrid]

Deepeeka is a likely candidate, Al Hamdd Trading Post may be another one.
http://www.al-hamdd.com/index.html

Armamentaria sells some of their products:
http://www.armamentaria.com/store/index.php?m...rers_id=10

[Christopher Gregg]

They look more like short sword Holbein daggers, or Degens to me. If they're inexpensive, I might be interested, though. If they are Deepeekas, I'll probably pass .

[Matthew Amt]

Hmm, no, I think Deepeeka's "Celtic" stuff is much more accurate! As I understand it, the whole concept of the "Celtic leaf blade" is basically bogus, since what we define as Celtic culture did not emerge until leaf blades were pretty much out of use. And they were bronze, in that part of Europe, not iron.

Now, the blades on these are a decent shape for a *Greek* iron sword from the Classical or Hellenistic eras. But the hilts are pretty much a loss all around, and the scabbards are only useful for their wood. Historically speaking!

It's interesting that in Western Europe, bronze leaf blades gave way to straight-edged swords that then were copied in iron. (At least that's a basic summary--Jeroen will hopefully correct me!) In Greece, the bronze Naue II sword, with straight edges, evolved into an iron sword which THEN became the Greek leaf-shaped blade! History's mysteries...

Valete,

Matthew

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

[Matthew Amt]

Doh! Gundlingens, forgot about them. I was thinking of Mindelheims, but it seems a little bit of a stretch to think of them as leaf-shaped. But I certainly concede the point. Thanks, Jeroen! Unfortunately, that doesn't make the swords shown above any more historically accurate.

Vale,

Matthew

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

[Joel Chesser]

You know, the more I look at these the more I think that if the the price were right and blades steel and heat treat were appropriate, they might make fun project swords. I'm envisioning some kind of fantasy, hobbit swords or something. Toward that end I even like the guard.

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

I have an announcement:
For those who are interested with Celtic swords just go to http://www.templ.net/english/weapons-antiquit...le_age.php. Here you can see Czech swordsmith Patrick Bárta's replications of Celtic and other swords based on real ones kept in museums. He also runs the website.