Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm wondering if any of you could point me out to the use of leaf-bladed sword designs in history? I heard that some Iron Age Celtic blades had this design, but I haven't been able to locate a photograph or first-hand sketch of a historical example for such a blade. I'd appreciate any pointers on this.

I know my motivation is not pure--one of my gamer friends have asked me to sketch a fantasy sword design for his character--and as usual I want to start from a historical model because I don't want to design a sword with a shitty balance even if it's just a fantasy design that will never go on to become a real steel weapon.

How about the earlier Gladii in use of the Roman Republic and later in the early empire?

Well, perhaps. Do you happen to know any sites that provide details about their blade geometry and such?

Incidentally, Geoff Wood has referred me to this page on reproduction Bronze Age swords: http://www.templeresearch.eclipse.co.uk/bronz...r_sale.htm

It reminds me of the leaf-bladed swords illustrated in Oakeshott's Archaeology of Weapons, and maybe I can borrow some data from them--although the characteristics of bronze swords will inevitably be somewhat different from iron ones.

There maight be some here... http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ight=mainz

Actually, by the Iron Age, the Celts seemed to have abandoned the Leaf-shape, for the most part, for the more parallel-edged (and longer) La Tene-era swords. Leaf-blades were much more common during the Bronze age.

There were a few "leafy" bladed swords during the Iron age. The Greek double-edged "Hoplite" Xiphos has an elongated leaf shape. The Roman "Mainz"-pattern gladius could be considered leafy. On the other hand, the Roman military dagger, the Pugio, had a very leafy-shaped blade (but it's not really a sword....).... but that's about it, as far as I'm aware....

.... unless you consider some later African swords, like the Masai semee (sp?)....

Ok this is my third try ... keep getting pages lost. So I'll cut the commentary

This site has very accurate replicas of Bronze Hallstadt / Urnfield swords

http://www.templeresearch.eclipse.co.uk/bronz...r_sale.htm

Here is a Greek Bronze age sword
[ Linked Image ]

The Greeks later evolved these types into an Iron verson called the Xiphos

Dont forget the elegant Moro Barong

[ Linked Image ]

Hope that helps

J

Leafbladed swords were most common in the bronze age and early iron age. Here are some of my reproductions:
http://1500bc.com/bronzeage/nf_bronzes_eng.html
The blades are cast by Neil Burridge:
http://www.templeresearch.eclipse.co.uk/bronz...r_sale.htm

And here are some originals in the British Museum:

[ Linked Image ]

[ Linked Image ]

And if you enter 'sword' here:
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/lbl/...Simple.asp
You'll find many leafbladed swords on display in the Museum of London.

There's probably sometihng to be seen here:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7633
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7745

Hm. Those are certainly interesting pictures.

BTW, Jeroen, since you've cast the blades yourself, could you give some observations about the saliet points of blade geometry? Like whether the blade has to be thicker at the narrow waist, but much flatter at the broadest part of the blade (where, I presume, the point of percussion lies)?