Dating on the Albion Reeve
Hi everyone,

Albion doesn't list a dating for their Next Generation Reeve sword.

Do you guys think this would be dated around 1050 c.e. or a bit earlier? If earlier do you feel a sword like this would have likely been pattern-welded? Just curious.
According to myArmoury.com's review of the Reeve http://myArmoury.com/review_alb_reeve.html:

Quote:
The Reeve by Albion Armorers is an example of a late period Viking sword that would have been in use in the 10th or 11th century in England and many parts of Northern Europe.

and
Quote:
The Reeve has an Oakeshott Type A pommel, commonly referred to as the "Brazil nut" variety, which saw use in the late 10th century and remained popular until the middle of the 12th.


From Evolution in the construction of medieval sword blades http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=376...ern+welded
Sean Manning wrote:
Here is a key sentence: "after about 800, pattern welded blades slowly disappeared and were replaced by all-steel swords. After about 1000 AD only all-steel swords were made" (but in the Napoleonic Wars soldiers were bending their hangers into hooks to fish bodies out of rivers and loot them, I suspect that some cheap swords were still pretty low carbon in the late middle ages)

Here are some different constructions and the periods Alan Williams has found them in:
one piece of hardened steel: 10th century, 15th-17th century (7 out of 48 swords tested)
several pieces of hardened steel: 10th century, 13th-15th century (7 out of 48 swords tested)
iron core with hardened steel edges: 10th century to 17th century (28 out of 48 swords tested)
undetermined core with soft steel edges: 10th century to 13th century, 15th century (5 out of 48 swords tested)

None of the low-tech furnaces produces beautiful, homogeneous pieces of steel, all exactly the same, like we get when we visit a sheet metal shop. They produce messy lumps with different properties which need to be combined with each other, and inside a given piece there are often spots with different composition and properties. The art of the smith was looking at these unique pieces, getting a feel for what each of them was like, and either choosing an appropriate one or combining several to get the overall properties he or she wanted. They might have a favourite method, but sometimes that was not the right method for the materials available and they had to adapt. A swordsmith in rural Norway would have different materials than a swordsmith in Brescia, and a smith making cheap blades this week would use different materials than a smith making expensive blades this week. If you want to know more, you will need books and websites like the ones I suggested.

So, figure AD 975 - 1100 for the Reeve.
Thanks Jonathan,

That's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know.
You're welcome

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