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+--- Thread: Making a Gladius blade (/showthread.php?tid=16367)
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Re: Making a Gladius blade - brennivs - tony drake - 02-11-2010
Great first attempt Lyuv
If you find time try and work the top of the blade down so the apex runs the whole length. Robert is spot on about forging thick it works the same with grinding. That is why I always say after you finish your bulk grind have 2mm edge all round the blade;![[Image: fvllvm002.jpg]](http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t272/brennivs/fvllvm002.jpg)
This a bit thicker but it will give you an idea what I mean. This should be more than enough to finish the blade with. Any grinding marks should come out as you have plenty metal to play with. Otherwise great work
Regards Brennivs
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Matt Lukes - 02-13-2010
Quote:Matt I made my Mainz/Pompeii at that thickness at 9mm about 20 years ago, and even if you had arms like Arnie they are just too blade heavy. I also read the reports hence why I did this. When I finaly saw pics of the blades you soon see that the measurements are of coroded blades and the measurements are thus. The sword of Tiberus is 10mm and a sword from Dura is 14mm. ... Now that is not to say that blades could not be thicker than 5mm but if you look at the non ferrous fittings that gives you an idea of the blade thickneses. again very rare the give the hole size for the tang ect on the hand gaurd plate. Also I have a pommel nut which is just under 5mm thick hole for the tang.
Well I don't find thick blades too heavy and since Roman tactics generally prescribed thrusting, the weight is not such an issue, no? Plus a trained soldier surely wouldn't have a problem. And I am going by non-ferrous fittings- primarily guard plates. Because they're closest to the blade and I expect they should be the most telling of the blade's thickness since it is best for them to be relatively tight-fitting, and I also looked at the guards and pommels from Vindonissa, which too bear out the thick nature of the blades; their fine decoration is intact, thus one should be able to expect the blade holes are equally undamaged. Using a pommel nut seems to me to be problematic in that the end of the tang is of course going to be thinner than the blade, and clearly there are numerous examples of swords showing the end of the tang made quite small to accept a nut. Why exactly do you think the guard plate won't work (if I understand correctly that this is what you're saying above)?
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Gaius Julius Caesar - 02-13-2010
Would the tang not be thicker? It would seem that the handle part of the sword would be stronger, and as it is not worked to as fine a
degree as the blade, why would you make the tang thinner than the blade?
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Matt Lukes - 02-13-2010
Have you ever seen a sword with a tang thicker than its blade? I, myself, haven't. In fact, on a well-preserved example like the Royal Armouries Pompeii (ex-Guttmann) you can clearly see that the blade was hammered from a billet of the thickness at the blade-tang interface because the end of the tang has slight faces itself, something I noticed that happens after having forged a number of these swords myself. You can't help but slightly shape the tang and still properly shape the base of the blade.
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Gaius Julius Caesar - 02-13-2010
Quote:Have you ever seen a sword with a tang thicker than its blade? I haven't. In fact, on a well-preserved example like the Royal Armouries Pompeii (ex-Guttmann) you can clearly see that the blade was hammered from a billet of the thickness at the blade-tang interface because the end of the tang has slight faces itself, something I noticed that happens after having forged a number of these swords myself.
In your previous post, you said the tang was thinner.... I see I misread that, and you are saying the 'end''
And as you say above, I haven't seen one thinner, and couldn't imagine it either....
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Matt Lukes - 02-13-2010
Ah, yes, the end
There are a few fairly extreme examples where the last centimetre or two of a tang is hammered right down to half its thickness, presumably to pass through a nut without comprimising the strength of the tang prior to that.
Re: Making a Gladius blade - Doc - 02-13-2010
Tony, is there such a marked difference in size between the Mainz and Fulham. Is the Fulham not a Mainz sword and thus a variation is understandable but not such a stark difference? Of all the pictures I have seen, I have not seen the Fulham near the size of a pugio.