[David McElrea]

Hi all,

What with travel, jet-lag, my wife having a trip to the hospital (she's fine), and getting back into the swing of things, it;s been a while since I've posted.

Anyway, I've just added two new pieces to my collection-- both from the Bronze Age Foundry.

The first is a replica of an Irish Middle Bronze Age sword, from the Pitt-Rivers Collection. The hilt-work was done by Paul Binns, and is of elm-wood (which I am told is the most split-resistant wood native to Europe and thusly a fair guess as to the original material used). The disc pommel is of antler. Over all, I think his work is quite good-- it sits in the hand very nicely and emulates the Bronze-Age "look" quite well. The sword itself is a real cutter-- just over 2 lb in weight, but with a hefty blade-presence. The rest of the stats follow:

Total Length: 22.75"
Blade Length: 17.5"
CoG: 5"

The second makes use of a replica of a Middle Bronze Age tanged spear-head from the Arreton Down Horde. While I have yet to take a picture of the whole thing, the spear, from tip to butt is 7' long. This one I did myself (and had a lot of fun in doing it).

Over all, the spear is 7' long, with a shaft of ash. I shaped the shaft itself using a spoke shave, tapering it towards both ends (it is 1" in the centre and tapers down to 3/4" on each end). Again, Paul Binns gave this advice-- archaeological evidence is nigh non-existent for Bronze-Age shafts (or Iron-Age for that matter), but looking at other cultures, he felt the tapered shaft would be a likely one, especially with a lighter spear. One sees the same idea in modern javelins as well. An added bonus is, it doesn't look like a glorified curtain rod. I stained the shaft with some blackberries (simple but effective) and then applied a coat of linseed oil. After affixing the tang into the shaft I wrapped it with wet rawhide which has now tightened in place securing the head from the sides. The balance feels good-- Over all I'm pleased with the look (although at some time in the future I may redo the binding).

There isn't much more I can think to say about that... now I just need a couple of Celtic, Roman, Migration/Viking Era, and (a few more) Medieval pieces and I might be satisified. As it is I am grooming myself in the art of patience (or am being groomed, insofar as I haven't the money to spend now). Perhaps some day soon...

David

[David McElrea]

After some reflection I decided to make some changes to the hiltwork on the bronze sword-- seeing as I posted the original, I thought I would put up the "new look" as well. While I will need to do some polishing, and may add a few extra touches here and there, this is what I have come up with. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out (being an amateur), as I think it duplicates more closely the styles I have seen in hilts from that period. I will include a pic of the hilt as I received it, a pic of the new hilt, and a full pic of the refashioned sword.

I'm sure there is room for improvement, but hey... I'm learning.

David

[Geoff Wood]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

Hey David...

Excellent work... I have had one of those BA foundry swords for the last year or so... Still not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but it will involve red coral and amber in some way.

Have you seen this thread over at SFI?

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40069

ks

[David McElrea]

Hi Geoff and Kirk,

Thanks for the encouragement-- I haven't done any cold working on the edges as of yet... would have liked to, but don't have the tools or the confidence that I won't ruin the blade. As for finishing, I used files to take out the worst of the pitting, then sand paper, emory cloth and steel wool to bring it to a reasonably neat finish. It was a lot more time consuming (and tiring) than I expected.

With regards to the handle, I mostly worked from patterns I had seen in non-organic hilts (thanks for the link to the other thread Kirk-- I hadn't seen it, but it is fantastic! Also quite encouraging, particularly the Italian piece-- while there are clear differences, it seems I was going in the right direction).

With the handle itself, I ended up spending quite a bit of time with chisel and sand paper, and added some BA-era reversing spirals to the antler pommel (again, amateurish, but I like it).

To finish off, I used (once again) the juice of ripe black berries to give the wood a deep purple/red colour. I will add linseed oil to it sometime in the next couple of days.

Kirk, I look forward to seeing the end result of your project-- I'm sure it will be stunning!

Yours,

David

[Geoff Wood]