10-02-2014, 07:14 PM
For wood of the sword, may I recommend he use boxwood, as this seems to be a very popular type of wood in the Roman era. Most all pommels and guards recovered were made of boxwood.
Ivory could be a challenge because of CITES, but a way around that is using mammoth Ivory (still legal), like I did when making a Ivory hilt for the Newstead spatha. A25 in Miks. However, in good quality, it is very expensive. Fortunatly, the guard and pommel are not very elaboratly carved. There is the option of alternative Ivory, I ordered mine from a firm in the UK which makes the best. However, it is still "plastic". Another option could be a tropical nut which very closely resembles Ivory when polished.
Ivory could be a challenge because of CITES, but a way around that is using mammoth Ivory (still legal), like I did when making a Ivory hilt for the Newstead spatha. A25 in Miks. However, in good quality, it is very expensive. Fortunatly, the guard and pommel are not very elaboratly carved. There is the option of alternative Ivory, I ordered mine from a firm in the UK which makes the best. However, it is still "plastic". Another option could be a tropical nut which very closely resembles Ivory when polished.
