Pompeii Gladius and Scabbard - Work in Progress

[sulla felix]

I though that I should share progress on one of my latest projects which is a pompeii gladius and scabbard. The blade, handle parts and scabbard timber was supplied by Matt Lukes in unfinished "kit" format for me to mess up!

Here is the blade that is forged complete with the interesting flared tip. With expert guidance from Matt I used a metal file to finish the blade which was first drawn at 45 degrees down the face of all sides of the blade to get them reasonably flat, and then finished with the file at 90 degrees to give a nice even finish.

[sulla felix]

The grip is made from bone and here it is in place after the first rough shaping on the blade with the blank hand grip and pommel elements.

[jvrjenivs]

thats a lovely blade you got, Barry. Looking forward to more pictures!

[sulla felix]

And here is a close up of that


and now the had grip and pommel shaped

[sulla felix]

Onto the scabbard - here is a picture of the wooden scabbard initially shaped - this was taken before I had shaped the handle parts obviously!



The Locket and Chape I am trying to copy are based on these two original pieces

[sulla felix]

This is the first upper part of the Locket plate which I basically traced onto flat sheet brass and then punched and filed for the cut outs, and then used shaped masonry nails for finer engraving /punching the design.



And here is the completed Lcket plate in position on the wooden scabbard



And a close up

[sulla felix]

Here is the Chape piece again made using the same process as the Locket



And the parts of the chape formed



And assembled, but not fully cleaned up

[sulla felix]

And finally for now the Locket tinned and assembled. I still need to work on neater rivetting for sure!



More when I make further progress!

[jvrjenivs]

Really Cool. I started on this one also a long time ago, but put it into 'to do' box as it was to diffucult to get it nice, back then. You're making me jealous. I'm working on a Mainz type right now, but I think I now know which kind of sword the next will be. (Although I've to make a 4th century scabbard first).

Laudes!

[sulla felix]

Thanks!

It is a lot of work, especially the punching out of the plates, and a number of times I asked myself why I had started the project!

I could not have got this far without the advice and guidance of Matt Lukes, and yes the blade is awesome. Matt's work on forging blades is really superb!

Look forward to seeing the Mainz progress.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Nice work again Baz!
Looks like you take the reverse approach that I would on tackling a sword project!
I could manage the wood for the scabbard, but the rest would be where I would go wrong lol
Wearing this in Rome?

[sulla felix]

Thanks Byron.

Not sure if this will be the chosen weapon for Rome, but I will be there!

[Doc]

Barry,

That is excellent work. At some point I would like to attempt such a decoration just to see if I could do it. How thick is the brass sheet you used? I was thinking of .5mm as since this is the approximate thickness of original lockets and chapes-I think?

[Doc]

Oh, I also would like to second your opinion about Matt Lukes' forged blades. Simply put, they are the best and most accurate that I have seen.

[sulla felix]

Thanks!

Yes I used 0.5 mm brass sheet which seems to be approximately the thickness of some surviving lockets as you say.

Good luck with the project. I found that spending time getting an accurately sized print out of the actual locket paid off and I made what was in effect a stencil to mark the cut out parts of the design. The rest was drawn free hand.