Pugio hilt question

[Crispvs]

The grip plate from Heddernheim is indeed made from ivory. It is recessed to fit a type 'A' tang of full length, and features two roughly parallel holes in the pommel expansion (drilled badly off centre). The grip itself is rather thick and this results from the fact that the plate is designed to enclose the tang rather than only cover its outer face. Curiously the only holes are the two small holes in the pommel expansion and as these do not seem sufficient to hold the grip securely to the tang I do not know how it was really attached. Obviously, the recessed nature of the plate would help but there are no holes at all in the guard, which would really have made it secure. The handle may originally have featured a thin outer layer of iron, which would be fairly normal but there is no guarantee of this. In any case that would still not explain how a more secure grip could have been achieved. Of course the recession might have been an exact fit on the original tang, in which case, with the other side still present, the central expansion would have prevented it being pulled off and the pins or rivets which ran through the pommel expansion may have been enough to hold it together, especially if the ivory plates could have been glued edge to edge, which is a possibility.
Obmann shows both front an back views of the plate (taf47,figs 2&3).

I am not aware of an ivory grip plate in the museum of London, although I have heard tell of a jet handle, although I do not have a picture of this.
I don't have a copy of Fugere but when he talks of ivory handles he may be including the Melun pugio. As far as I know this has not been verified. The article in which the Melun pugio was published is poor and the analysis of the dagger was equally poor. The author seems to make assumptions based on what the remains looked like, but it seems vague and it would appear that no proper analysis was done. Thus I do not accept the identification of ivory rather than bone (which seems much more likely) and will not until I see a proper analysis of the remains of the dagger's handle which proves it one way or the other.

With regard to the possibility of copper-alloy grip plates, I do recall photographs of a pugio with a plain copper-alloy type 'A' sheath, which may have had copper-alloy grip plates, which were posted up on RAT by someone about four years ago. Unfortunately the copies I made of these pictures became corrupted an I have not been able to find them again on RAT, meaning I cannot check.

In the case of the Leeuven pugio, the sheath is copper-alloy, decorated with cast strips of pearled brass which were soldered on. The grip plates of the handle were iron but had a thin copper-alloy coating, which is why many people see photos of this dagger and think it has brass grips. The guard is further decorated with a line of pearled strip of the same type as on the sheath running around its outline. This does not continue up onto the grip itself.

Regarding the possibility of wooden grip plates, this is certainly a possibility but if it was the case no such grip plate have so far been found, as far as I know. This does not prevent the possibility (quite a likely possibility) of wooden grip plates but at this stage the evidence to prove their existence is lacking.

Crispvs