hasta tips

[Marcus Mummius]

Salve,

Was the socket of a roman hasta tip welded shut or not? Or did some exist with welded sockets and some with open seams?

Also another question on the hasta: what would be a good shaft length for the hasta of a late 2nd, early 3rd century hasta?

Thanks in advance,
Jef

[Matt Lukes]

Thus far all the images of artifacts I've found shows them to be open- the seams are more obvious on some than others, but I always see one. Forge welding requires a fair amount of force pressing two pieces of iron or steel together and I don't expect that'd be too easy to achieve with a narrow, tapering hasta tip socket. I don't think there'd be as much need to either- the metal when just wrapped into a cone is quite strong

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks Matt!

The other questionsI have are:

-Would 2m35 be a good length for an auxilia infantry hasta?
-Would a hasta-tip of 12inch or 15inch be the most typical?
-What would be a good diameter for the wooden shaft of a hasta with a lenght of 2m35?

Thanks in advance,
Jef

[Matt Lukes]

Well I asked the diameter question just recently and was told that one artifact tip (in Kalkreise) that has a section of its haft remaining showed it to be about 2.5cm in diameter. The end of the socket is narrower- more like 1.8cm, so the haft begins tapering before it reaches the socket. The blade is 22cm with a 9cm socket, and a group of artifacts from Newstead measure between approximately 8" and 12" including their sockets. I'm now making proper replicas of a few of these myself

[Marcus Mummius]

Great that's what I needed to know!
thanks!