"How to" make a pugio

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Now we put some tape to protect the borders and the back of the iron plate:



And now we immerse the piece in ferric chloride, with the drawing looking downwards in order that the particles that are becoming detached fall to the bottom of the basin and do not stop the etching process.

Now it's time to make the inlay. Romans and good replicamakers make it inlaying a silver wire. I fill the channels with silver solder paste and fuse it with a torch. The photos of that procces are burned, sorry.

To exaggerate the chromatic contrast between the silver and the iron, I have used a product for blueing, used today to protect the hunting weapons.



That product makes a local surface of iron oxide, blackening the surface.

Now we buff and polish the piece, getting the black and white colours shine.