RomanArmyTalk

Well, Miks has a :?: for the date...

Ahh...The blade shape looks interesting. Neither a Mainz nor a Pompeii? What does Miks categorise it as?

He has "Mainz?" for the type and "Haltern-Camulodunum?" for a variant within the type. His "Mainz" category has plenty of variation, see the diagram here - http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... 492#196492

Thanks Alexander.

Inspired by Alexander's excellent posts above I decided to have a go at making scabbard suspension parts based on both the Porto Novo and Rajkova-Mogila scabbards.

I started with a strip of .032 brass and annealed it. I then marked the width of the scabbard and a centreline and then using a blunt centre punch and two layers of leather I punched the dot decoration. I then used a vice to hold either side of the punched dots and form a triangular profile.

I then formed the detailing where the suspension rings are housed using brass round bar and hammering it into the annealed strip backed again with two layers of leather. This is repeated a number of times alternating with a cold chisel being used from the other side to punch back the centreline and get the shape required.

I used a reamer held in a vice to form the shapes of the ring holders.

Here are the pieces in place on the scabbard - lots of cleaning up to do but you get the idea!

Excellent!

Very impressive! Looking forward to seeing the finished scabbard.

Maius/Bill