Sudes

[VGallus]

We are creating some Sudes for an display we are working on and wonderd if anyone has made them and has dimensions. Also, if you cut them from 4x4's what did you use to cut them? My table saw will only go up to 3" above the table and my band saw is too small to do the job.
Thanks!
D. Valerius Gallus
Legio X E.V.
(Pat Sanchez)

[M. Demetrius]

Many of the sudes found were not nearly that large in thickness. From the looks of the Bishop & Coulston pictures, some may have been as narrow as 2" x 2".

If you like the big size, just cut your 4 x 4 down to 3 x 3 and mark a line down, and saw away! I doubt the Romans used a saw. They probably just used axes and trimmed tree limbs down to the size they wanted. *Remember the function of these things.* The more acute the angle at the tip, the easier they would stick in things.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1842171593?tag=...t.co.uk%2F

One of the wonderful source books available for those of us who can't get to the great European museums.

[M. Demetrius]

There is also some helpful information here:

http://www.roman-reenactor.com/sudes%20p...ml#pic_131

The term "pila murialis" is not universally accepted as meaning sudes, however.

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

If your saw blade only goes up 3" then set your fence to the desired distance from the blade and make the cut. It will not go all the way through but then just flip the 4x4 over and finish the cut on the other side. By setting your fence you ensure that the cut on the other side will line up. If you are doing angle cuts on the table saw set the angle on one side using the fence and make the cut, then transfer the fence and angle to the other side of the blade and flip the piece of wood over again. Same idea as a straight rip.

[VGallus]

Makes total sense, I wasn't sure if people were turning the 4x4 into 3x3 and then shaping them or what. Was getting ready to break out the chainsaws.
Pat

[M. Demetrius]

A quote attributed to Vikings is, "Saws are for people who don't know how to use axes."
My view is "Axes are for people who don't have access to a saw."

[M. Demetrius]

We in Cohort V are making a stack of sudes, too, for part of our work at our March 22-25 camp. Ours are based off a 2 x 2 (4cm) x 60" (150cm). Evidently some sudes were thicker, but some were about this size. So far, we've deliberately left the ends a little blunt, since these will often be displayed where the public can walk right up against them. Obviously, theirs were sharp. Below are pictured the first 6 off the production line. Made with every power tool I could bring to bear, it took under two hours to make 6.

So the question is, how to bury them in the ground? Our ditch will be about 3' deep (1m) and the berm about the same height, because this is someone else's property and we have to fill it in the same day. Otherwise, the ditch would be about twice that deep. Put them in the berm facing across the pit at an upward angle? Stand them at the top as pictured below? with or without a rope connection?

What do you think?

[PhilusEstilius]

David.

I think from a defence point of view they should be put into the soil at the back of the berm so as to have the two points facing as shown in the pic' you have given.
Then for the next ones each side of that should be around 180 degrees and this way you have a continuous row of spikes facing anyone wanting to come over.
However do we have to then ask ourselves the question, were they even put into the ditch itself and strung together in a long row.?
For if a ditch was deeper I think the enemy would have one heck of a job getting at you fast.