Gladius discussion (was: show your gladius off)

[Flavivs Aetivs]

For those of you with a SOTW Gladius can you speak to the quality of the steel in used in the blade? I know they use a mild steel but in your experience how has it held up at reenactments and seeing use?

I guess what I am asking is, are these strictly showpieces or can they be functional to any degree?

It's 10-40 Steel I think. Not sure.

I haven't had a problem with my SOTW Gladius, the only thing I really had to do was take a pair of needle-nose pliers and clamp the brass pieces that hold the rings on the side on shut. I tightened a few other bits and the scabbard has held up fine. Yeah some of the plates are loose, but it wasn't anything superglue wouldn't fix.