Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Dec 19th, 2016 at 2:02pm
Hey guys, I always forgot to show you this replica I made last year.
It should be a short sword imported from Greece some 2600 years ago, that found its way to a rich Picenian prince's grave.
The grave has been dug in Matelica, a hundred kilometers from where I live, and contained a dozen weapons of different kinds, a couple of armors, some helmets, many horses and two war chariots, all this to serve their owner in the other world.
The sword I tried to replicate was one of the weapons and was most probably used during ceremonies.
Its handle is made of ivory which was decorated with amber triangles and bronze buttons. A couple of ivory plates also decorated with bronze buttons were attached to the sword in a position that made clear the fact that they were decorating the hilt's opening.
This replica was intended for display purposes only, so I didn't lose time in forging and hardening an iron billet, trying to turn it into a reliable steel blade.
I just cut the sword's shape out of an iron plank, using electric tools:
Selling or buying ivory is illegal in Italy, so I used the bone of a cow's leg to make the handle's plates. I love the smell of burnt bone in the morning.
I then shaped a part of the bone in those zoomorphic figures (fighting lions?) that made the handle's pommel in the original:
Dug 3 triangles on each of the bone's plates in order to insert the amber...
...a following sanding made everything nice and smooth. I also prepared the holes in which I'd insert the bronze buttons:
I then attached the handle's plates to the iron tang using 2 tiny nails, trying to make them the most invisible I could:
Next step was to add the pommel, the bronze buttons and to give the blade a first polishing:
It was time to think about the hilt, and I decided to give it a rectangular shape. Quite odd but still common in that context, so-called "bell-shaped hilts" were used in association to the Novilara type swords, a single-edged curved kind of short sword.
So I applied the bone plates and draw the lines I'd later scratch with a hot iron knife:
And suddenly everything was done:
It's the poor copy of the original: the craftmanship of that ancient Greek swordsmith is still out of my range even if I used a couple of electric tools (but all the filing, polishing and bone working was made with hand tools).
But I will keep trying.
The making of this sword took me eleven hours and various dozens Euro, that would have grown if I forged the blade.
The replica had quite an adventurous life, being use for a photo shooting session inside the ruins of a huge Roman town in Region Abruzzo (called Prate d'Ansidonia):
It's now under restoration because a hyper-active kid dropped it on the ground, breaking the horns, but shift happens :)
I'm using resin to repair it.
Greetings!
Mauro.
It should be a short sword imported from Greece some 2600 years ago, that found its way to a rich Picenian prince's grave.
The grave has been dug in Matelica, a hundred kilometers from where I live, and contained a dozen weapons of different kinds, a couple of armors, some helmets, many horses and two war chariots, all this to serve their owner in the other world.
The sword I tried to replicate was one of the weapons and was most probably used during ceremonies.
Its handle is made of ivory which was decorated with amber triangles and bronze buttons. A couple of ivory plates also decorated with bronze buttons were attached to the sword in a position that made clear the fact that they were decorating the hilt's opening.
This replica was intended for display purposes only, so I didn't lose time in forging and hardening an iron billet, trying to turn it into a reliable steel blade.
I just cut the sword's shape out of an iron plank, using electric tools:
Selling or buying ivory is illegal in Italy, so I used the bone of a cow's leg to make the handle's plates. I love the smell of burnt bone in the morning.
I then shaped a part of the bone in those zoomorphic figures (fighting lions?) that made the handle's pommel in the original:
Dug 3 triangles on each of the bone's plates in order to insert the amber...
...a following sanding made everything nice and smooth. I also prepared the holes in which I'd insert the bronze buttons:
I then attached the handle's plates to the iron tang using 2 tiny nails, trying to make them the most invisible I could:
Next step was to add the pommel, the bronze buttons and to give the blade a first polishing:
It was time to think about the hilt, and I decided to give it a rectangular shape. Quite odd but still common in that context, so-called "bell-shaped hilts" were used in association to the Novilara type swords, a single-edged curved kind of short sword.
So I applied the bone plates and draw the lines I'd later scratch with a hot iron knife:
And suddenly everything was done:
It's the poor copy of the original: the craftmanship of that ancient Greek swordsmith is still out of my range even if I used a couple of electric tools (but all the filing, polishing and bone working was made with hand tools).
But I will keep trying.
The making of this sword took me eleven hours and various dozens Euro, that would have grown if I forged the blade.
The replica had quite an adventurous life, being use for a photo shooting session inside the ruins of a huge Roman town in Region Abruzzo (called Prate d'Ansidonia):
It's now under restoration because a hyper-active kid dropped it on the ground, breaking the horns, but shift happens :)
I'm using resin to repair it.
Greetings!
Mauro.