More pugio stuff..

[Tarbicus]

:wink: :wink: :wink: And maybe silvered pugio plates...

[Celer]

Tarbicus,

Just a warning about Roman niello. It is a mixture of copper, silver and sulphur. It can only be applied at a temperature hot enough to melt all the components, the sulphur then reacts with the copper and silver forming a beautiful blue-black alloy, while the excess of suphur cooks off. You will need a very hot kiln, and a very good gas mask as the sulphur stinks beyond belief! I was in a room at the Met in New York when they baked some onto a piece of Russian armour being restored.

Maybe very tollerent neighbours would help as well! :lol: It really is that bad.

Vale,

Celer.

[Tarbicus]

Celer, I've absolutely no intention of attempting real niello. Black cold enamel seems a far safer and less smelly option, ta very much!

[Marcus Mummius]

Works really well on stamped belt plates Jim.. :wink:

Were 1st centuryplates with concentric rings ever enameled (for example with red enamel) or 'niellod'? I'm suddenly having visions too (tinned beltplates with red enamel...)!!!

Is it easy to spot black cold enamel from niello?

Vale,

[Peroni]

Concentric ring (bullseye) belt plates were not enameled. There are some with central bosses that were but not the ringed ones AFAIK. Most of the stamped/inlaid belt plates are pre-Flavian.

Black enamel can be made to look like niello if it is matte finish and more of a charcoal grey that pure black

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks Adrian. Do you have an example of a beltplate with a central boss but no rings?

Vale,
Jef

[Tarbicus]

Apparently, if you apply steam over the enamel 3 or 4 hours into its drying period it goes a matt finish.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Might be usefull for an attempt at an Oberammergau? 8) How much steam are you talking about Jim?

[Tarbicus]

I'm not sure Byron. Download the PDF I linked to earlier, it's all in there.

[Celer]

Salve,

There are two basic types of niello. Roman was silver, copper and sulphur (as described by Pliny the Elder), while later medieval niello used lead instead of copper. Both can be polished to a high gloss as C19th Russian Tula craftsmanship shows. It wasn't used just for inlays, but it could be used to cover an entire sphere, rather like a modern glass maker will overlay a basic glass object with a second layer of glass by turning it in a kiln allowing the molten glass to cover the entire surface.

Vale,

Celer.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Cheers Jim/Celer!

[Peroni]

Jef wrote..

Thanks Adrian. Do you have an example of a beltplate with a central boss but no rings?

Yes Jef, I found a link to an example on the ESG website. It's a reproduction of a plate found at Hod Hill. It's a pressed plate with a raised central boss inlaid with niello. It would have originally had a rivet or inlaid rivet at the centre.

http://www.esg.ndirect.co.uk/Equipment% ... pg_jpg.htm

There a similar finds from Colchester and Richborough.
(The pre-Flavian Military Belt: the Evidence from Britain. Archaeologia vol. CIX 1991- Nick Griffiths and Francis Grew)

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks Adrian. I haven't got that wonderful article with me at the moment so I couldn't check it. I'm still very happy with it though :wink:

[Crispvs]

"And maybe silvered pugio plates..."

:evil: As far as I am aware there is and was no such thing as a pugio plate, unless of course you mean the front plates of type 'A' and 'B' sheaths and the back plates of type 'A' sheaths.

The belt plate in the ESG picture is by Len Morgan by the way and the original it is based on is featured in Grew and Griffiths. It has a shape which looks like type 'A' and inlaid details but also has a raised central boss, causing Grew and Griffiths to catagorise it as type 'B'.

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

I have to agree indeed with Adrian, that cold enameling is much easier and more cost effective. Infact I have found that Areldite to be even better, when used with Humbrol enamel paints. With standard areldite one can use a gas oven at Mk1, that is when the Wife is not there. It helps accelerate it, then with Areldite rapid it takes just a bit longer to cure. I normally use as little paint as possible, even just a drop or two for when the mixture begins to set the colour darkens. Infact I've used this method for years now with belt and pugio plate inlays.