Field smithy

[Robert Vermaat]

I received a question that I could not answer: what would a Roman field smithy look like?

[tlclark]

Dirty.

Seriously, I don't know what HE would look like but his tools are remarkably similar to today's tools.

I would suggest the short tunic we see for most workmen and maybe a leather apron. Not all that different than today.

Travis

[Comerus Gallus]

D D

[mcbishop]

I received a question that I could not answer: what would a Roman field smithy look like?

We have to work from the known to the unknown with this, but it is a very good question.

Campaign bases, aestiva (the word, like castra, is already a plural), usually called by the catch-all term 'temporary camp', produce little in the way of structural evidence, despite the fact that they seem to have been occupied for protracted periods. They usually only have bread ovens and latrine pits and they are also extremely unproductive in terms of finds (a few sherds of pottery are a real find from a temporary camp).

So whatever was used to provide field smithy facilities doesn't leave much trace. It also had to be capable of fixing bent weapons, patching together knackered armour, and general maintenance. The question is... did it need to be very elaborate? The pseudo-Hyginus allows the equivalent of the space for 200 men for the workshops in the praetentura (see Kate Gilliver's translation of the DMC in JRMES 4, pp. 37 and 43).

We can, I think, assume that manufacture took place in the slack period when the army was back in its hiberna and there was a vast manpower resource available for production. So repair is the order of the day: anybody ever hammered out a spearhead or sword blade with minimal resources? ;-)

Mike Bishop

[Rob Travis]

In all probability several blacksmiths and/or armourers would have been attached to the army on the march and would have been housed in the temporary camp. They would have been required to carry out repairs, sharpen tools and maintain kit as well as reforge and reassemble any pila used in a given action.
Small-scale metalworking such as sharpening tools or weapons, which had become blunt during the day’s work could have been sharpened in the temporary fort. This could have been carried out with the item being worked cold using a hammer and a small anvil known as a mower’s or scythe anvil.
However, working the iron cold would have made it brittle so to prevent damage or breakage the tool would have to be heat treated. For this a small hearth would be required which did not need to exceed 700ºC.

In many cases local fuel, in the form of wood, grass, charcoal or coal, would have been used with the fire being placed directly onto the ground. The blacksmith would sit on the ground, with the tool across his legs, and hammer it cold on a mower’s anvil, which had been set up in the ground between his knees, prior to being annealed in the small fire. The item could then be used until such time as the legionary returned to the permanent fort where it could be reworked hot.

For larger scale work such as repairing armour or pila the blacksmith/armourer may have carried with him several small bellows, fuel (charcoal and/or coal), a selection of tools such as hammers, pincers, etc., a couple of iron pigs, a larger version of the mower’s anvil and possibly a fire box to act as a furnace.

Robert Travis

[Carlton Bach]

This may be of interest here: M. Trachsel reconstructed and successfully tried a portable furnace for melting bronze found at Vindonissa. This may have been a portable armouring or repair tool.

The article is: Trachsel, M: Ein tragbarer Giesserofen aus dem Legionslager von Vindonissain: Experimentelle Archäologie in Deutschland; Bilanz 1997, Beiheft 19 der ARchäologischen Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland, Oldenburg, pp. 141-156.

[Peroni]

A really informative book which I refer to a great deal is "Iron for the Eagles" by David Sim. (Tempus publishing) There are a few pieces of sculptural evidence in the book for the appearance of the Roman smith and his assistants.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0752 ... e&n=266239

Regards,

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks you so far for all the suggestions and contributions. Laudes for all.

[adamparsons]

I have straightened a viking sword with a smooth pebble on another rock before, after a particularly enthusiastic fight! (blade not a well tempered as I thought!)

on another note- I drew a piece of stone from the roman fort in carlisle a few weeks ago and it was a slightly larger than fist sized smooth cobble which had maybe 5-6 grooves worn in it by repetatively moving something back and forth. Half were square section and the rest roundish, all about 7-12mm......

Sounds like the removal of burrs and nicks from pilum shafts to me!, but they are only using a "favourite stone". Why waste/blunt a file on such a crude job?

[Peroni]

Here's a nice impression...

http://www.paxaugusta.net/4Viecivile/4c ... civile.htm

From Pax Augusta website.

Regards,

[Crispvs]

I bent the point of my sword once when I slipped whilst running forward and accidentally thrust it into the inside of my shield boss. A little later I straightened it again by placing it against a stone and hitting it twice with a small hammer.

Crispvs