Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Alanus]

Well, perhaps you're right. Could be that Celto-British swordmaking slowed down after the mid 5th century... if, in fact, British swordmaking was ever an industry at all. :wink: There are no records or signs of it, unless you believe novelists like Jack Whyte. At this time, as you say, the official Western Roman fabricators disappeared.

However, excellent swords were still made on the Continent. Yes, many were apparently made by the Germans: evidently the Franks and Alemanni, and perhaps the Gauls and Italians.These are the "Black Sea" styled models that are so well-recorded in archaeology, such as the one in Childeric's grave. A bunch of these swords have been photographed and also offered for sale by big-time antiquities dealers. They all have straight grip-checks, predecessors of the cruxiform sword (as opposed to the Saxon-Northman types), with fancy sheet silver or gold hilts. Half of those made had Indic jewel insets. And the steel itself may have also arrived from the east in blank bars. Even the so-called "famed" Viking sword-makers used blanks which came from Pakistan. Good "late" steel appears to arrive from beyond Europe itself, and the designs of many 4th to 6th century swords appear to be influenced by those of the Han Dynasty. Not much British in real archaeology.