Hod Hill sword

[Caballo]

The first prototype was sent over from Suhel of Al Hamdd and arrived on Thursday- for which many thanks. A number of us- notably Peronis, Crispus, and Celer looked it over and swung it about on Saturday.

Overall, I think it is potentially a very impressive sword, and great for auxillaries (and probably Celts as well!). It felt good in the hand, and the grip worked well. It also attracted a fair bit of attention!

A number of important changes need to be made- to be expected on a prototype.







The width at 52mm is spot on. The original blade ends at 435mm with no tapering. The replica blade is long , and at first I wondered (being more used to the Deepeeka spatha) if the replica was too long- however, I was surprised to find out from Stead that the Celtic longswords' blades were between 635mm and 850 mm ( hock: ). This would be well within that range.

A number of changes will be going back to Al Hammdd (and I am very pleased with their willingness to really work on making it authentic).

Some of the changes will be:-

a/ Blade - point more tapered and less heavy.

b/ Hilt- blade grip and guard need re-working.

c/ Scabbard- flatter, and some major re-design now that I have got the Hod Hill scabbard mouth. No guttering, palmettes, and complete chape redesign.


Anyway, I will be continuing to work on this, but thought that you would like an update of work in progress. I also thought it might be helpful to see how I have approached developing a replica at a distance- very much working around drawings and photographs of the originals. All comments very welcome!

Cheers

Caballo