Late roman spatha\'s with stripe pattern

[caiusbeerquitius]

Holger is not so extremely wrong, I would say. Most of the blades I have seen are indeed made of layers (stripe-damascus or torsion-damascus). Usually this is not mentioned in the publications, as an x-ray would not show this - the layers are too thin. In many cases, they are indeed not visible as well, for the same reason, but also due to restoring techniques. Almost all of the Künzing daggers are layered, also the semi-spathae from there. The publication mentions a not-finished spatha-blade found there as well. This blade is of a sort of mono-steel, and seems to have been made during or right before the siege of the place. Apparently, if there was enough time, the blades were decorated.