RomanArmyTalk
New recruits - Printable Version

+- RomanArmyTalk (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat)
+-- Forum: Community (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Round Table (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=21)
+--- Thread: New recruits (/showthread.php?tid=1)



Re: New recruits - Peter Johnsson - 01-16-2010

Hello all,

After having visited the Roman Army Talk as a lurker, I thought I might as well enter as a regular pedite.
This is a large site with an impressive amount of dedicated members sharing an enormous amount of detailed knowledge. Over the past few years the roman sword has been a theme in my studies: there is much to learn!
Living history is something I unfortunately very seldom get to enjoy these days. But the dream still lives on!

Swords are my interest and my passion, so I ask forbearance in advance if I may seem a bit slanted in my interest Tongue . I make my living as sword smith and by designing swords for limited production. I base my work on personal studies of original weapons (I believe this is essential if one is to capture the feel and function in reconstructions of historical types). In addition to this it is very beneficial to learn from discussions with fellow students and aficionados. I know there is much I can learn from the discussions here and perhaps I can in some ways contribute with some of the observations I have made during studies of swords from the time scape of the roman empire.


Re: New recruits - jvrjenivs - 01-16-2010

Welcome here, Peter. Do you have a website? Would be interesting to see your work Big Grin

Edit: just found out you're one of the Albion team. Great stuff you make!


Re: New recruits - Gaius Julius Caesar - 01-16-2010

Welcome aboard Peter.
That is intersting to see a point like that, similar to a pompiensis in the Leeds armoury.
What are the dimensions of the semi-spatha? I have seen other swords described as such, but this one is what I
first believed one to look like.
I look forward to your posts with interest.

Hmmm, something is interfering wit h my posts..I'll try again.

The work on the hispaniensis is outstanding. Your own work I assume?

Seeing Jurjens edit, I thought your name was familiar. I have a couple of Albion gladii, and still waiting on a spatha.
I too would like to see your website if you have one.


Re: New recruits - Peter Johnsson - 01-17-2010

Jurjen & Byron,

Thank you!
Yes I do research and design work for Albion, developing their historical swords. However, I do not post on this forum as an official representative of Albion but I will course answer questions regarding this work should there be any interest. I will be active here in the selfish goal to further my own studies of the roman period to help me better understand the swords of the roman period, both within and outside the empire.
...and yes, the Hispaniensis is my own work. The hilt is carved from olive wood from Italy. The rivet washer/ bronze band is actually based on a celtic sword found in France. I have an impression there was some cross breeding between swords from different cultural areas.

I have only just now read the first page on this introductory thread :oops: and see that I did not make my intro complete.
So to fill out the picture: I live in Sweden, Uppsala and have my smithy just outside the city. I do not have a web page yet but hope to have one up and running later this year (something I´ve been saying for quite some time now...). Somehow I have managed without one ever since I started working as a full time sword smith back in summer 1999. Before This change in career I worked as an illustrator. I have always had a strong interest for history as it survives in more or less decayed and broken remains and this has somehow acted with some kind of gravitational force on my life path.
The Medieval period has been a major focus for me and also allowed me to take part in some late 15th C reenactment through the Guild of Saint Olaf in Stockholm and the Compay of Saynte George. I would love to get involved with this some more and would also very much welcome reenactment in the roman period, perhaps from the perspective of the barbaric horizon? (The weaponry and artifacts of the roman iron age in scandinavia fascinates me!)

I spend quite some time and effort in the study of original blades and have documented weapons from the bronze age up to the late renaissance. The last few years there has been reason to study blades of the roman period, both within the empire as well as those on the other side of the limes.

The semi spatha I posted a detail of is in a private collection. It has a blade length of some 618 millimeter and a width at the base of some 46 millimeter. Cross section is a soft octagonal with an almost blended out midrib. Had this blade been more eaten by rust it would have been described as having a lenticular section! Thickness at the base is 5.4 millimeter decreasing to 3.9 just behind the reinforced point. It is constructed by a simple form of pattern welding with two bundles of four dark lines running down the mid faces. Tang length is 181 millimeter, so it is perhaps reasonable to expect it once had a hilt somewhat like that of a pompeii gladius. The shaping of the rivet is larger than can be expected for a mushroom shaped bronze button, so perhaps a washer of some kind was used instead. The blade has a nice, handy & sturdy feel to it with a weight of 676 grams. Edge geometry is excellent. I think it was once a very effective cutting sword.


Re: New recruits - Andy B - 02-02-2010

Hi, my name is Andy. I actually have gone by the screen name 'sulla' on a lot of other forums but felt it was presumptuous here. Tongue I am very interested in Roman history around the end of the republic. Of course I read the MCullough books years ago (which got me into the genre) but it only spiraled out from there into full blown historical research (of a hobby bent.)

I have made oodles of maille both butted and riveted, dabbled in the SCA, costuming, and am very big in TV and movie prop replica creating/collecting. I've decided to join here to learn, and to build. I want to create a Roman persona complete with military gear, of about 100-0BC. I was leaning towards Patrician, but am not sold as I love hamata.

Thanks for having me!


Re: New recruits - Matt Lukes - 02-05-2010

Welcome to RAT Andy- you'll definitely find all you want here and we're glad to have you Big Grin


Re: New recruits - Libitina - 02-09-2010

There is no re-introduction thread so I'll come back to this one!

I've been absent for possibly a year or so (yikes, time flies) due to life getting in the way Smile although I have dwelled in the shadows to read some threads from time to time. I was in a medieval reenactment group when posting here and met a couple of you but I've drifted away from that in the past year also. I'd like to consider joining a Roman group at a later date when life settles again but for now I'll continue lurking and enjoy reading your debates and seeing the things you've been creating.


Re: New recruits - Matt Lukes - 02-09-2010

Well welcome back Kat Big Grin


Re: New recruits - Robert Vermaat - 02-10-2010

Good to see you again, Kat from Wiltshire. :wink:


Re: New recruits - johnczyk - 02-27-2010

Hello-I am new to this forum........resident of United States....Studied Latin in school....Read a lot of translations of Caesar et al...Always interested in Roman warfare.HBO series has pushed interest to a new level-now cannot get enough of the historical information.Just started collecting Roman coins..........so much to learn.......Look forward to learning much here-it sounds as if there are quite a lot of interesting folks here.
JOHN


Re: New recruits - johnczyk - 02-27-2010

Just have to figure out this avatar thing.......yikes


Re: New recruits - Ensifer - 03-11-2010

Salvete, amici.

I grew up in southern and central California. I moved out to South Carolina for college, and but for a two-year stint teaching in the Pacific, I never left. I don't recall where my interest in Rome originated. As a teenager, I recall being fascinated by David Macaulay's City, but I was homeschooled through much of elementary school, so I'm sure the interest goes back before then. In fact, now that I think of it, I know that Richard Halliburton's fabulous Complete Book of Marvels (a gift from my aged sire) had a major influence on the early development of my imagination.

My father (fifty-four years my senior) also introduced me to the mini-series Masada when I was a boy. It's still one of my favorite TV productions of all time, and a must-see for everyone interested in the Roman military. Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quayle, David Warner, and Barbara Carrera. What more can I say?

In high school I visited Rome with my family, but a much more influential experience for me was a visit to the Roman ruins at Bath in the summer of 2001. I went through with a friend, and was fairly underwhelmed. On the way out, I picked up a book in the shop that detailed the history of the excavations there. I was sucked in. I bought the book, and after poring over it for forty-five minutes on a bench outside (to my friend's chagrin), I went back through a second time. How different an experience it was! I understood what I was seeing! It came forcefully home to me that I was, though many feet underground, walking on the Roman surface. It was like time travel.

By the time I began Ph.D. studies in Renaissance Lit in 2003, I had developed a well-nourished desire to know Latin (both for classical reasons and because of my professional focus on Renaissance literature). I shared that desire with the graduate director, and she made some calls and got me into undergrad classes. Since then I've expanded my education in the classics and in Roman history and archeology in fits and spurts. I have a wide-ranging interest in military history that draws me from time to time to various eras. This is the second forum I've joined. I've been an on-and-off presence at http://myArmoury.com since 2007.

I learned of this site via the website for Legio VI Ferrata Fidelas Constans, a reenactment group here in South Carolina. I'm putting my pinky toe in, as it were.

I'm here primarily to interact with and learn from people who love the things that I love.

I teach English and Latin in a Christian high school.


Re: New recruits - Robert Vermaat - 03-13-2010

Wow David, that's quite an introduction! Welcome to the forum!


Re: New recruits - Sandoval - 03-15-2010

Salvete omnes

My crhistian name is David P. Sandoval, aka L·Minicivs·Sceptivs, Scepti for the most. I'm from Madrid (Spain) and although I've been reading the RAT for many years now, I lost my old account and I had to get back with a new one.

I'm a member of Hispania Romana, a spanish association where the reenactment group Legio VIIII Hispana is working. I know some spanish members of the RAT, such Jordi Mambrilla, Cesar Pociña, Ivan Perelló, José Gallego, Daniel /Ebusitanus and some more.

We also have participated in events like those in Lyon, Dies Natalis in Rome, Keltiberoi and some others.

Right now I'm working together with some of them in order to develop an experiment based upon those of Peter Connolly or Marcus Junkelmann about pila throwing. We intend to design a similar experiment using republican replicas from Numancia and Castellruf, and some other till Oberaden types.

Well, that's all. Forgive my english, it's a bit rusty by now. Smile

vale,


Re: New recruits - LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS - 03-15-2010

Welcome here, David.

Nice to have another spaniard in our ranks!!!