Any armourers?

[Matt Lukes]

That's hard to say Jon- one would think that the Emperor wouldn't have just any old weapon so judging by the features of military weapons might not be appropriate. Now I can tell you that this could not have happened with a gladius or pugio- for different reasons. For the gladius, the sword's tang extends all the way through the handle and is peened over a pommel nut, so cannot be easily removed and also the handle is 3 separate pieces (guard, grip and pommel) that, unless you glue them together or something, wouldn't remain together without the blade. A pugio's handle is generally two halves (front and back) riveted together over the blade- so one can't really remove the blade without some serious work. This suggests that if the story is true, the weapon Domitian had must have been constructed rather differently. All blade weapons have a tang of some sort that extends through the handle, and since you don't really want the blade and handle to come apart, disassembling one isnt' something I'd expect would be readily done by a non-smith. Then again, as I said earlier, it really depends on the design of the specific weapon, so all I can say for sure is that I'm not familiar with any sword or dagger that can be disassembled easily and just the handle left intact.

Matt