Historical Blades

October 10th 2012 NOVA "Secrets of the the Viking Sword" Documentary 9PM/8Central some photos here: http://www.doorcount...s.com/NOVA.html In the Summer and Fall of last year I had the pleasure to be involved in the production of a TV documentary program focussed on the Viking Sword. The program was produced for NOVA (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/) though the work of National Geographic and Pangloss Films (http://www.panglossfilms.com/). In October of 2011 Pangloss Films came to my shop and documented the making of a special sword based on the research of Dr. Alan William's of "The Wallace Collection" in London (http://www.wallacecollection.org/). Several years ag…

A very interesting article from an archaeologist at the University of Sydney and researchers from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. An African Art Re-Discovered: New Revelations on Sword Manufacture in Dahomey

The broken back seax has always been one of my favorite blades. It is in my opinion both brutal and elegant, aesthetically pleasing and perfectly functional. I have always wondered about the evolution of the design. Why that shape? Was the design influenced by the raw materials, the tools, the armour it was intended to be used against or some more mundane cutting chore? My google fu is not legendary but I have worded my searches many different ways and haven't come across a definitive answer. I have read dozens of academic papers and some of the speculation has been, 1) it was such a simple design to forge that it required no great skill and therefore many people could ma…

Here is another one. Real ironwork this time: https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72486#respond

2 years ago a diver discovered a sword sticking out of the mud in a river, the museum has done their research, released a report, and it is now on display. The sword dates to the 9th or 10th century. What is special about this sword is that the leather wrappings on the hilt are still intact and it is remarkably well preserved. From what i understand there are only a couple swords found that still have their leather wrappings. I thought this may be of interest to those of us who make historical blades showing how the leather wrappings were done. To interest of metal smelting, scrolling down on the article you will find another on Celt iron smelting site in Pola…

Roland Paladin of Charlemagne fell in battle against the Saracens in late 700's AD lodged his sword into the stone cliff face Rocamadour France. The sword was said to contain several Holy relics including a bit of Mary's robes, unbreakable, and always sharp. Legend says that before he died he treid breaking the sword against rocks to no avail. So he hurled it into the air where it flew, some accounts say 100s of miles, and lodged itself in the rock face. Where it has been resting for 1300 years. The sword was stolen just days ago. Ok, now enough with the myths and legends. The priest of the Church there has said this is the "umpteenth" replica that has disappe…

Howdy everybody! How’s it been going? it’s been a hot minute since I been on here, been busy busy busy at the new place! I just had a couple of antique swords givin to me about an hour ago, they are heavy on the patina but I can make out Ames MFG (or at least I think I can) lol thats on one side and then some numbers and letters on the other side The only thing I know about swords are that they are pokey on one end and you hold the other end that’s not pokey! Lol im afraid to use anything to awfully abrasive to clean up around the hilts so I can read what they got to say, there’s a lot written there but it’s hard to make out, I’m wanting…

Coincidentally to our discussion of copper yesterday here is an article regarding a 4k year old copper dagger found in Poland. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69556#respond By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

What an amazing discovery, perfectly preserved Roman Swords. https://www.businessinsider.com/roman-era-swords-found-perfectly-preserved-cave-2023-9 I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus

Here is an article about a Swiss Late Bronze Age meteoric iron arrow head that appears to correspond to a mteor fall from Estonia. I've seen this covered on CNN and MSN but this has more detail. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67967

Howdy folks. I came across this story earlier. Rare Bronze Age sword found in German burial site is still shiny | CNN

Here is a link to an article about a 7th-9th century scramsax found in Sweden. The carved interlace on the grip is vey cool IMO. When things like this are founhd I wish they would do a noninvasive analysis of the metal so that we could know if it was iron or steel or case hardened or what. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67467#respond

I am trying to figure out the easiest way to make a bayonet for my dog-lock trade musket. It can compensate a socket bayonet but was really made for a plug; which I don't want. I'd like to make my own socket bayonet and don't know how. I think I need a swedge.

Here is the folding machete from WWII made by Camillus. It took me a while to find it in my collection of knives and swords. In pretty good condition for being 80 or so years old. I carried it in the woods a lot when hunting, too bad the original steel blade sheath is missing, some day I may make a leather one for it. It's a great chopper.

Several new bronze blades. The Bronze Age in the Carpathians....Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary. Dating ... wide ... between 1700 B.C. and 1100 B.C

Hello all, Knowing I am a bladesmith, a gentleman from church brought me a katana today asking if I knew much about it or if not, to find out what I can. I called a local dojo and was able to confirm what I had read about the ability to take the blade apart and read basically all of the information there is about this blade. Based on my studies this blade does not seem to be anything spectacular or rare, but it is a well built blade and I want to be as respectful as I can to the blade itself, it’s maker and the gentleman who now owns it. is there anyone here interested in potentially guiding me through the dismantling of this sword or pointing me …

My reconstruction. Iron length 23.5 cm, blade width 6 cm, weight 235 grams. Total length 53 cm, total weight 500 grams. Copper inlay.

From an article on BBC news site: www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-62631475 That design has some definite legs on it!

Here is an article about 2 pattern welded medieval knives. This is a semi-commercial web site where you can buy and download copies of academic articles but this is a free PDF. I don't think this violates the rules but maybe nudges them a bit. You would have to do some linking, I think, to get to the actual commercial part of the website. https://www.academia.edu/39396167/Metallographic_examination_of_two_medieval_knives_from_Kobilić_Republic_of_Croatia_?email_work_card=view-paper "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

A pair of early (ca. 8th century BC) Iron Age swords have been found in Bavaria. Here is the link: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/64237#comments "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I'm sure many folks here are aware of the iron dagger that was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, the thirteenth (and antepenultimate) Pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Egypt. It has long been known that it was made from meteoritic iron, but a new analysis by three scientists of the Planetary Exploration Research Center and the Institute for Geo-Cosmology at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan and another scholar from the Conservation Center of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza has yielded some very interesting results. I think folks here might be interested, especially those with an interest in historical metallurgy and bladesmithing. I'm linking the Meterorics an…

Here is a link to an article about a Roman dagger (puglio) recently found and conserved in Switzerland. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/62704#comments "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Here is a link to an article about a recent find of a Byzantine era blade and axe: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/62222#respond Although the blade is describe as a "machete" I am a bit skeptical. In form it looks like many medieval knives which range up to fairly long. There is no mention of its length. The axe is interesting. I don't think that I have seen an example of an axe before with a tang like this. Everything I have seen, ranging back to bronze age examples, has a socket of some sort. Maybe this was some sort of specialized wood working tool. This excepts modern one piece axes such as those made by Estwing. "By hammer and hand all ar…

The following photo was published on the "ArcheoSerbia" webpage. Note the "blacksmith's knife/'Viking' knife" in the lower left quadrant. Here is the description from that webpage:

I'm wondering as I've been reading up and wondering about a ballock knife (and which version of their 700year history). I don't see much about what metal was used. These were cheaply made wooden handle no frills tools in their origin. Given how much effort steel took, would cheap knives like this just be banged out of wrought iron for the average person? Like crappy mild steel garden tools today