Greek Hoplite carving knife

[jabames]

what did a Greek Xuele look like? supposed to be a sickle-shaped carving knife made for the process of making a spear, jusst wonder what they looked like and if anyone has any reproductions, and also I want to know whats the process of making a hoplite spear, from tree or sapling to spear shaft

thank you

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Hello.
The xyale was not supposed to be used to carve a spear,though i've read this speculation somewhere. But it's only a modern unfounded speculation as far as i know.
There have been some xyales dedicated to a temple in Sparta and we can see their shape,usually from the shape of the carving on the stone stelae they were put into,with the name of the child that owned it. I don't remember if any of the iron blades has survived also.
There seems to have been some variation in shape,as you might expect,but they all seemed to look much like the curved knifes that farmers still use for the cultivation of vines. They only seem to have been bigger and they didn't fold,like the modern ones.
At the moment i don't have access to the article i saw them,but Paul B. must have it.
Spears were usually made of ash. Javelins were best made of dogwood,though some branches of dogwood can be long enough to make a spear too.
Khaire
Giannis

[jabames]

ahh thank you, soo I gather spears were made mostly by axes or hatchets, and/or by regular straight-shaped knives or something rather? Then smoothed by either rasps and somehow sanded?

[John Conyard]

Years ago I go myself a nice curved blade to "make spear shafts". But you would have to be very patient to make a spear shaft with such a knife.

A draw knife works very well and an axe is great for roughing out a shaft.

[Peter Raftos]

A sample of a Lakonian xyale/xuele outline can be found in the report on the archeological digs of the Temple of Artemis Orthia. The iron had long rusted away but its outline was incised in the stele, http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/...&ident=300