Fulham Gladius Scabbard

[Matt Lukes]

Avete Omnes,

I just finished my latest big piece- the famous Fulham Gladius scabbard, replicated as closely as I could do from the image in Sumner... what do you think?





Even though I've made a few pieces by repousse/ chasing already, this one really surprised me in the length of time it took to do- the large middle plate took me something on the order of 8 hours to make! That's a really long time to spend carefully hammering away on a little tool... :wink: All-in-all I'm pretty pleased with it and I think it's going to be hard to send it off to its new owner (it's for a client) Oh and the sword doesn't actually go with the scabbard- it belongs to another client and has a smaller guard than the Albion blade for which the scabbard was made.

If anyone is interested in doing repousse/ chasing, feel free to drop me a line- I'm always happy to share what I've learned and I can recommend places to get supplies.

Valete

Matt

[Lucius Aurelius Metellus]

That is absolutely stunning work, Matt! It is superb! Excellent work!

[Dean Cunningham metalsmit]

what thickness metal did you use for the embossing? Did you use a leather backing to do it or pitch? I prefer leather if I can get away with it.


Dean

[Matt Lukes]

Magna gratis Lucius

I used 0.010" brass Dean since I wanted the detail to be nice and sharp, although I have used 0.015" in the past and fared pretty-well. I used pitch for these ones- use leather for simple things like armor florate rivet bosses that I make with a single stamp, but I actually wouldn't have thought leather would work well for something like this at all. Then again I learned repousse/chasing by reading various articles and they all talk about pitch, so I never tried leather...

Matt

[Marcus Mummius]

Stupid question: Do you put the leather backing on the the face you are puncing or on the back of it?

[Matt Lukes]

For those instances where you can use leather, Mummius, it is on the 'front';specifically you put the leather on a hard surface like an anvil, then the annealed sheet metal on that and hammer away. I don't know what types of pieces Dean's meaning that he uses leather for, but for the scabbard plates I used chaser's pitch (a modern version of the actual plant resin or petroleum-based stuff). It has the consistency of semi-hard toffee- you heat it up set the metal on it, allow it to cool and hammer away. It's flexible enough to allow you to hammer even very thin sheet metal without piercing it (so long as you're careful), and rigid enough to keep all the surrounding metal in place rather than it just buckling.

What pitch can be used for that leather cannot is chasing- repousse' is the term for hammering from the back, chasing is working a piece from the front. In order for something not to just buckle, there has to be the same rigid but flexible backing- so because the pitch becomes quite soft when heated, you can actually fill the back of a piece and thus detail it from the front.

The other cool thing about pitch is that it can be used almost indefinitely; leather tends to retain impressions, so you can only use it for a short time, but pitch can be 'renewed' constantly. I've heard of one case where an artist is still using the same pitch his father used when he learned the technique!

Now I don't mean to sound like I'm being down on leather- not at all; one thing pitch cannot be easily used for is stamping items that require a bit of force to do- repousse'/chasing is done with small tools and a light hammer strike, anything hard can make the pitch just crack apart and mess-up what you're trying to stamp. I use leather to make the florate rivet bosses for my segmentatae because I use a single stamp I made and in order to get any detail in the 'petals' requires some force. Leather's perfect for the job :wink: It's also a lot easier to just grab a scrap of leather than it is to have to warm up the pitch each time I want to work on a piece or between front and back work.

Matt

[Tarbicus]

Know what - that's a really good and interesting description. Thanks Matt

Cheers.

[ursinius]

great job Matt, the result looks genuine roman style on the pic.

So do you charge this client all the hours? What should such a scabbard cost?

Sebastiaan

[Gaius Octavius Drusus]

Ave et salutatio Matt:

All I can say is drool, drool, DROOL!! I see that the scabbard is housing the Fulham gladius that you completed for me....:-) )
Once I return from my visit to Iraq, rest assured that I will be contacting you about making it for me.

Salve et magna gratias:

Gaius Octavius Drusus

[Matt Lukes]

Magna gratias fratres

Your kind words are much appreciated. Yes Drusus, that's your gladius- I suppose I should have asked before using it in the photos :oops: I hope you don't mind- the scabbard is just incomplete without a sword to protect. Indeed I'll be happy to make one for you when you're ready

Actually Sebastiaan since this is the first full scabbard of this type I've ever made, I had to estimate the amount of work in order to give the commissioner- graciously referred to me by Albion because they don't do Roman scabbards themselves- a price. Fortunately, I was pretty accurate in my estimate

Vale

Matt

[marsvigilia]

I am in awe.

I would never be able to approach your work, nor unfortunately be able to afford it either. But it will haunt my dreams. Truly outstanding.

[Gaius Octavius Drusus]

Ave et salutatio Matt:

I didn't mind at all. In fact, I was hugely pleased (even more so by the fact that one day that scabbard will be weighing down one side of my balteus).
Did I understand you correctly when you said that the scabbard wasn't finished yet? It looks to me like the tip could do with some sort of finial.

Salve et magna gratias

Gaius Octavius Drusus

[Matt Lukes]

Exactly Drusus- I took the picture not long after the 8-hour session that completed the center plate, so the 'finial', being the last thing I had to make, isn't in the picture above.

And your gladius will definitely look great in its own scabbard :wink:

Vale

Matt