Amazing pugio blade

[stevesarak]

my 2 cents

this is an chemical cleaned blade ( cheaper and faster but not better ), that's the reason of the pitting and the pronounced color pattern between the iron and the steel. you don't have that if a blade is mechanical cleaned

just my opinion

Steve I am still interested in the thickness of the blade

cheers
Luc

Assuming that the chemical reaction made that much of a difference in color, and assuming that other museum Pugios blades with the same corrosion pattern, that are made of the same steel, weren’t chemical cleaned, then that would explain why we haven’t see others (As far a I know) like it.

Looking at museums pieces though, I see the same deep corrosion pattern as mine, but chemicals didn’t make the pits. When metal starts to corrode it starts to chance chemically, just as a copper changes to a blue/greenish color and is easier destroyed. I don’t remember the actual chemical brake down of iron, I have it someplace, but at this stage, different parts become weaker as they chemically change and at that point chemicals will dissolve those first, leaving behind the pitted iron or steel, the pits showing you where the metal had the extreme corrosion.

A methodical cleaning, chemical or not, assuming that they’re going to take it down to the essence metal, and not leave the crustations of corrosion, will produce the same pitted look. I use a particular metal cleaner, on new swords I acquire, to take off the rust before I protect the blade from anymore corrosion. This cleaner is safe for metal but will take away everything but the metal, it will take material that the metal as corroded into as well as the patina (Which is to be avoided at all cost if possible). For anyone getting an old blade with a lot of corrosion, and thinking of using metal cleaners that strip away everything but the metal, be careful, you may find that all that was left of the blade was the corroded material and you end up loosening your blade (BE CAREFUL)

In this blade though, the inside strips are steel, wouldn't steel have been used on the outside to hold a sharp edge? And if you look close, you can see the darker metal corroding away from the lighter, does iron corrode faster then steel?



The thickness is 3/16.