Spatha of \"Pontic\" Type

[XorX]

I`d like to show you my newest reproduction of a pattern-welded spatha after a grave-find from Ingolstadt-Babing dating to the late 5th-early 6th century A.D. made for the Stadtmuseum Ingolstadt`s permanent exhibition.
The find contains the blade, a sepiolite sword-bead and two small iron buckles.

The blade is made up from 2 twisted rods and the u-shaped cutting-edge. steels used are welded steels with ~0.7%C for the edges, ~0.5%C for three layers of the twisted rods and soft phosphoric steel for the other 4 layers

square section is hexagonal; measures: length of blade 727mm, total length w. hilt 890mm, 42mm/5mm tapering to 33mm/2,9mm, weight 765g, PoB 215mm in front of crossguard

the handle is composed from the crossguard in boxwood inspired by the piece from Altlußheim and a simple conical hilt from horn shaped after hungarian and austrian finds which also show the small hole in the tang for fixing the hilt but no signs of a pommel.

Scabbard is designed after the find from Basel-Kleinhüningen but slightly modified; the belt is to be closed by a simple knotting (the small buckles from the grave lay far away from the blade, so I decided not to use them for the sword belt)

enjoy :-)

[Robert]

Excellent work!! That blade is a real beauty, great craftsmanship. It is really strange to see a pommelless sword. Keep up the good work, it makes a lot of difference to the forum to see accurate reconstructions now and again.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Nice work, both in the metal parts as in the wooden/leather ones.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Great piece!

EDIT:
I would be extremely careful about using Hunnic styles for what appears (from your description) to be a Germanic sword. Although the Huns left a lasting impact (like Cloisonne jewelry and decor on swords, fibulae, belts, etc) Hunnic sword styles quickly were overtaken in favor of Germanic-Type 1 styles. Blucina and Pouan are perfect examples of Hun-influenced Germanic blades.

Here's the Early-mid 5th century sword from Altlussheim, which is Hunnic:

[XorX]

Great piece!

EDIT:
I would be extremely careful about using Hunnic styles for what appears (from your description) to be a Germanic sword. Although the Huns left a lasting impact (like Cloisonne jewelry and decor on swords, fibulae, belts, etc) Hunnic sword styles quickly were overtaken in favor of Germanic-Type 1 styles. Blucina and Pouan are perfect examples of Hun-influenced Germanic blades.

And I would be careful to describe this sword as "germanic" or "hunnic" or whatever

All we know is the dating and the place. We know nothing about the ethnicity of that man or where he came from. We (AG Historisches Handwerk) made a complete impression according to the finds. We had many possibilities how to design the look of the clothing and weapons and decided to choose an "eastern" and late roman influenced look. The story behind is the fact that in this region there was the contact zone between the thuringian kingdom and the host of Theoderich.
An equal-dating sword of this type was found as far north-west as Teterow near the Baltic Sea.

so: Yes, I stepped into a terrain with some difficulties when I gave the blade this look, but I was also tired of seeing the same again and again.
It is only one possibility to reconstruct this sword...

[brennivs - tony drake]

Brillant piece of work, How does it feel in the hand, as Robert says very different without a pommel.
Great
Regards Brennivs :lol:

[Thomas V.]

Stunning craftmanship and thougt-out deducing of the missing parts!

[leonardod]

that´s an amazing and very beautiful sword. Making what nobody else makes is, of course, a wonderful plus.
Any chance of more pics and specs of this toy?

[XorX]

Brennivs: I`m not an experienced swordsman, I like it more to build the stuff :wink: , so, what I can say about the handling may not be representative, but my impression is that it feels like a long seax or a wakizashi

Leonardo: Here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=...tif_t=like
are more pics of the sword and the complete impression. I will load up more pics the next days about the making-of


edit: RAT shortens the link :? so it doesn`t work...
go to the FB-link in my signature ->pics ->albums->"Projekt Spathagrab"

[leonardod]

thank you, very inspiring work