"How to" make a pugio

[Crispvs]

Come now Magnus. Surely you have been at work on a pugio and sheath for nearly as long as me. Why throw all that time and effort away? If necessary have two. Wear one and use the other to make someone else look really good. I know you have followers over there in Canada. At Kelmarsh Hall last year I met a couple of Canadian women while I was looking at a WWII search light, who said they knew a man in Ontario who was famous as the local Mr Roman empire. Guess who they were talking about. 8)

Cesar,

My pugio is still a long way from completion. It has been underway for ten years or more now and is actually the underlying reason for my interest in pugiones. In 1995 I ordered a reproduction pugio blade from an armourer in New Zealand. When it arrived I found that it seemed to have a very exagerated shape which did not look like pictures I had seen. It also had a type 'I' tang which was much too long. I reaslised that to make it right I would have to modify it sustantially, including cutting the tang shorter. Doing this would have meant losing the pommel expansion and so before I took a saw or grinder to the piece I thought I should do some research to find out if there were any surviving pugiones with shortened tangs. By the time I found one and was ready to get back to work, several years later, I had read nearly everything there was to read on the subject and was already handing out advice to all and sundry about daggers.
Now, several years later, the blade and tang are in a state I am more or less satisfied with and I have a type 'Bii' front plate awaiting engraving and inlaying. The blade is technically type 'A' with a reasonable midrib but I have brought it to a shape which is more typical of type 'B' blades (the miniature Mainz galdius shape). The tang has been modified so it now finishes just above the central expansion, which has itself been reduced substantially from its original size. Various bone offcuts are currently waiting to take their places as parts of the inner plating on the handle and a piece of 4mm mild steel plate has been rough cut in preperation for shaping into a pair of triangular section grip plates. An oak offcut has been shaped shaped to the right profile and cut into two halves and is currently awaiting further shaping. I have not yet decided what design to inlay onto the front plate. Originally I had planned to do a complicated design based on both the Velson sheath and one from Hod Hill but I have decided against that as my skill at inlaying will not be good enough for a long time yet. Currently I am considering either the plate from Xanten (Obmann's D33) or one of the examples from Chester (not included in the pictures in Obmann).
However, with a sword and scabbard to finish as well and a three month old baby to attend to I am not sure when my pugio will be finished. If things end up being substantially different I will post up a 'How to' which would be complimentary to the excellent one you have produced here.

Crispvs