Torques construction

[Lugorix]

Making these will require anealing, especially if compunding the twists. Wire, if not copper (er, if yer gonna plate it) or gold, usally comes too hard to get a good twist from the get go. Probably not a problem if using gold, though I haven't used gold to know for sure. I have a nice bronze one that is made with two 3/16" octagonal bars that are twisted, but in truth I would rather have an iron torc. Iron jewelry is just cool. Folkert is right, that silver isn't all that common except in a few areas, and their styles are different.

There's lots of good resources out there on the subject. If you can read German, try this:
Adller, W. 2003. Der Halsring von Maännern und Goöttern : Schriftquellen, bildliche Darstellungen und Halsringfunde aus West-, Mittel- und Nordeuropa zwischen Hallstatt- und Völkerwanderungszeit, Bonn: Habelt.

The bibliography will give you a good start on current publications on the subject.

[Doc]

Thanks all for the replies. I think I will go with the brass.

As mentioned I was able to twist some strands together. Now the strands must be annealed to get them into one large torque.

Were Roman torques bronze/brass, silver or gold? I see that the Celtic as mentioned were mostly bronze then gold.



Paolo