Beautiful Roman Stuff
I just ordered a large fibula from this gentleman, but his arms, shields and other pieces look fantastic, too. See the sample image below. I can't link you directly to his arms & armour replicas, but if you follow this link you'll see where to go.

http://www.hr-replikate.de/englisch/index.html


 Attachment: 99.05 KB
balteus.jpg

Sweet :) Did the Romans really have pattern-welded blades though???
Eric Spitler wrote:
Sweet :) Did the Romans really have pattern-welded blades though???


Check out our article:

[ Linked Image ]

The History and
Development of
the Roman Gladius
Eric Spitler wrote:
Sweet :) Did the Romans really have pattern-welded blades though???


Hi Eric...

I have read that Roman sword blades were sometimes pattern-welded but it is hard to get a description or picture of what it would look like. My impression is that the pattern welding shown in the above picture is a little larger and more bold than Roman blades. For instance here is a picture of pattern welding on a very late Roman spatha found in the Illerup-ada bog find in Scandinavia...

ks


 Attachment: 98.68 KB
SpathaIllerupRivetStamp.jpg
Illerup Bog Spatha with Rivets and Inlay
Eric Spitler wrote:
Sweet :) Did the Romans really have pattern-welded blades though???


Patternwelding was not uncommon.
You find it on both Spatha blades and Gladii.
Some blades were made of steel folded many times (coming close to mono-steeel in nature).
Others were laminated iron and steel, yet others were more or less plain iron with very lowcarbon content.
There is a wide range of "quality" in these blades.
They are much more varied in shape and style than one might think when seeing what is generally avaliable in the replica market today.
Thanks everyone! I didn't anticipate so many knowledgeable responses, but I guess I should have, considering the level of scholarship around here :)
One thing to remember about pattern welding is that it wasn't neccesarily a sign of high quality. That tends to be how we view it today in our mono-steel bladed world. However, in the ancient world pattern welding was simply a means to an end. It was the best method available that allowed the maker to take rather crapy materials and turn them into something usefull. So it wasn't really rare. It was just another means to an end.

Page 1 of 1

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum




All contents © Copyright 2003-2006 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Full-featured Version of the forum