Early greek kopis reconstruction

[Lýsandros]

Greetings folks,

From the very first moment when I have decided to start with ancient greek reenactment, I knew I wanted to wield a kopis. This particular weapon was simply too strong to resist. Seeing that almost all kopis reconstructions I have seen for sale were those bulky falcatoid swords, I have decided it was a good time someone attempted to reconstruct an earlier kopis, which is a bit longer and way more slender. We have achieved this goal and as promised in the marketplace section, here is the thread about it:

This piece caught my attention, its from National Archeological Museum in Athens (as pointed out by Stefanos), I could not find any better picture, sorry:



The sword seems to be cast from bronze and then forged. As we lack the means to cast it, we have decided to take this as a template, but to move our reconstruction few years later, so that we could go for a blade made of steel and a composite handle, instead of a cast one.

We were a bit stuck on the handle selection and here are the versions that were considered:



A: is the ideal reconstruction of the handle. As i was limited by the final price of 800 euro, we could not go for the bird-shaped handle, which would have to be manually crafted, as casting was not an option.

B (right - as seen, not turned to the correct position upside down): the pommel is taken from a vase paintingand the handle would be assembled as a modern knife - this version was refused due to lacking historical evidence

B (left): same as the above but the handle will be reconstructed according to the original A - only the pommelis swapped to a different and more affordable version (thats the one we have decided for)

C: is a reconstruction of a handle from a vase painting - I was considering this one as well, but i have refused it in the end as it looked too common (too knivish) to me

D: the crossguard and the blade are made from one piece - this is the case in many falcata's from spain - this version was refused as there was no evidence such thing was done with kopis' in greece

So in the end, the blade will be taken from original (together with the slightly curved crossguard) and the handle will be replaced with version B (left).


After the decision was made, it took my friend Robert two weeks to handcraft the set. The blade is made from steel, the handle from olive wood with brass plating (should have been bronze,
i know ) and copper detailing. The scabbard is also made from olive wood bound in leather, with brass fittings and copper decoration.

It is a fully functional sword and I can tell you the design of greek kopis is truly excellent! Ive held a lot of swords in my life, but this has to be the best slashing/cutting weapon Ive ever got to use.

You can find the pictures of the finished weapon below:

Overview picture of the weapon:


Close-up on the handle and scabbard top:


Point of the scabbard (front):


Point of the scabbard (back):


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