Melun Pugio help please?

[Marcus Mummius]

Looks great!

I think it's chiseled...

[maarten]

Thanks Robert for putting the picture on the forum.

As you can see I am new on the forum, but not new in the reenactment world. I am indeed Maarten from Artemisia and Legio X Gemina (Gemina Project) from the Netherlands. I've made a lot of reconstructions for our group, but the Melun daggerplate is my first try of a daggerplate with silverinlay. In the past year I've done some research on daggerplates as a preparation for an article on daggerplates from the Netherlands. So if anyone has any pictures of daggerplates (Netherlands and abroad (as studymaterial) please let me know.

As for the Melunplate, it's partly etched and partly chiselt (two times). Chisseling took about 20 hours. The silverinlay still gives me some trouble (it's an experiment). I'll let you know how it ends and send more pictures soon.

Maarten

[Martin Moser]

Hi Maarten,

thanks for showing your work, looks great indeed! I guess you'll beat me to it, I only just started with doing a few centimeters of the border for learning about the techniques involved before starting for real (I have been planning to do this sheath for more than 5 years now :oops: ).

cheers,

Martin

PS: I sent you a PM about another topic

[Crispvs]

Well, you will both finish sooner than me. I am still practicing on scrap steel to get the engraving technique right before trying to start on my own inlaid type 'B' sheath. I don't think I will be ready for the Melun plate for a long time so I will probably be doing one of the simpler plates from Chester.

Maarten,

I can pass on one or two sets of drawings of dagger sheaths from Britain if it would help you. Photographs would be more difficult as I have only a limited range and most have been sent to me by other RAT members or are freely available on the Exploratio site. If you would like any drawings from Britain let me know.

Crispvs

[maarten]

Dear Crispus ( and others,)

Thanks for the offer to send me drawings or pictures. I will send you my email.

As fo my experiment, I will try to put a picture of the scabbard on the forum in its current state (better, but still not satisfactory)

[Tarbicus]

Any chance of one of you guys doing a 'How-To' on one these? I'm green with envy.

Beautiful work!

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Congratulations!

A very impressive work! Do you wanna colour black/blue the iron surface?

I think the contrast between iron and silver is evident, indeed.

[maarten]

When the scabbard is ready I will make a complete and detailed account of the experiment. It will be on the Legio X Gemina website ( www.gemina.nl ).

Greetings

maarten

[Crispvs]

Congratulations Maarten,

I can see what you meant when you spoke to me but the picture looks very good nonetheless.

Tarbicus,

I have sent you a PM.

Cesar,

I am sending you one too.

Crispvs

[maarten]

Although the silverinlay is not ready yet, I've made the iron a bit blue by heating it up with a torch to 350 degrees. The result is what you see in the picture.

Greetings

maarten

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

If you put some oil when heating, the colour will be darker.

[maarten]

Thanks for the advice, but I want the iron blue-ish and not to dark.

Thereby two new pictures. The first are two walnut planks I cut from a fallen down trunk from a tree in our garden. On it you can see a copy of the original drawing I made for the iron plate. The wooden plates will be used for the scabbard. The second are the silver hinges I will use.

Maarten

[Crispvs]

Maarten,

Am I right in thinking that the suspension rings are cast versions of the rings from the Velson sheath? If so, is the hinge tube behind the facia panel on each the same size as the originals or does it continue for the full height of the ring and form a solid unit with the facia panel?

Crispvs

[maarten]

Its the same size as the original

Maarten