Forging a pugio blade

[Peroni]

That's basically how I did it Brian. I drilled a 1/8" hole through a block and countersunk the hole with an 8mm drill. Then used a 1/4 punch to send it into the hole.

[jvrjenivs]

Ah, I like your method Adrian. More tools to made, yeah.

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

Scabbard is finished!

So this took some time... to say the least. After several failed attempts and workarounds the thing is finally done. Here are some pics of the final piece. In a separate post I'll post pictures of some of the methods I used
[attachment=4:fldjbfer]<!-- ia4 CompletedPugio1.jpg<!-- ia4 [/attachment:fldjbfer]
[attachment=2:fldjbfer]<!-- ia2 CompletedPugio3.jpg<!-- ia2 [/attachment:fldjbfer]
[attachment=3:fldjbfer]<!-- ia3 PugioBack.jpg<!-- ia3 [/attachment:fldjbfer]
[attachment=1:fldjbfer]<!-- ia1 CompletedPugio4.jpg<!-- ia1 [/attachment:fldjbfer]
[attachment=0:fldjbfer]<!-- ia0 CarnuntumOriginal.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:fldjbfer]

--Kelsey

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Not too shabby Kelsey! Is that your first effort at this sort of thing?

[jvrjenivs]

Excellent!

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

So some of you may be curious about the brass inlay

I really struggled with the traditional method, having first tried a shortcut of galvanic etching the steel prior to doing the undercutting and wire inlay. The process worked to a point and I was able to get some good results on small areas (see pics below).
[attachment=5:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia5 DSC_0010.jpg<!-- ia5 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]
[attachment=4:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia4 DSC_0011.jpg<!-- ia4 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]
Unfortunately I found that either the undercutting was insufficient or the gradual distortion of the steel due to the chiseling eventually caused the inlay to come out. The wider brass inlay lines were particularly difficult in this respect.

Out of frustration I went with an alternative which is what you see in the final piece. I manually chiseled out the channels in the steel, then brazed the brass in place. Once the brazing was complete, I simply ground off the excess (see below).
[attachment=3:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia3 DSC_0035.jpg<!-- ia3 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]
[attachment=2:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia2 DSC_0036.jpg<!-- ia2 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]
[attachment=1:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia1 DSC_0037.jpg<!-- ia1 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]
[attachment=0:2oi79ct5]<!-- ia0 DSC_0059.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:2oi79ct5]

Not period, but it had the advantage that the brazed brass inlay took all the abuse as I wrestled it into the final shape prior to mating it with the back. The downside is more with the chiseling, in that the steel still warped here and there, and eventually a few cracks appeared in the parts I went hard on. One of these I simply re-brazed shut and a couple I left as-is and can probably be seen in the photos. I suppose it looks a bit more battle-hardened that way.

--Kelsey

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

Ring/Ring-holder assembly... In case anybody wants to see how I did it... I don't think there's anything revolutionary here but might be useful to somebody doing the same.
[attachment=6:2015akmc]<!-- ia6 DSC_0103.jpg<!-- ia6 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=5:2015akmc]<!-- ia5 DSC_0104.jpg<!-- ia5 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=4:2015akmc]<!-- ia4 DSC_0105.jpg<!-- ia4 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=3:2015akmc]<!-- ia3 DSC_0107.jpg<!-- ia3 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=2:2015akmc]<!-- ia2 DSC_0108.jpg<!-- ia2 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=1:2015akmc]<!-- ia1 DSC_0112.jpg<!-- ia1 [/attachment:2015akmc]
[attachment=0:2015akmc]<!-- ia0 DSC_0114.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:2015akmc]

--Kelsey

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

Finally, some may be curious about the enamel. It is Devcon 2-Ton Epoxy - a two-part epoxy - which I mixed about 50/50 with red powdered tempera. As with the brazing, I ground off the excess with a sanding disk on the body of the scabbard. I gave it a light touch up with fine sandpaper on the rivet heads so they wouldn't look so shiny and new.
[attachment=0:13v9cek0]<!-- ia0 DSC_0095.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:13v9cek0]

--Kelsey

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

Not too shabby Kelsey! Is that your first effort at this sort of thing?

Yep! First time at pretty much all the stuff that went into this... inlay, brazing, and enamel :lol:

--Kelsey

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Excellent! One day I'll get a work shop....one day...... 8)

[Robert]

I was just wondering, couldn't a type of brazing have been developed by the Romans. Is molten brass was poured onto well heated, chiseled metal, would it not fill the chiseled channels in the same way. I am a blacksmith, so no knowledge of proper copperworking, but the idea just popped up :? Perhaps someone could give that a try and see how that worked?

Very cool piece of work, I must say, even as a traditionalist, trying my level best to recreate the actual methods of manufacture.

[Doc]

I agree Robert with what you are saying. Granted there are examples in which some of the larger decorative inlays are clearly inset brass or silver. However, on some pugios there are dozens of small little dash-like lines that are no more than 1-2mm in length. Practically, I think, that the roman master making such an item would have poured molten metal into the slots cut into the metal plate. I cannot see tiny little lines hammered into a minute hole.

[L_CORNELIUS_CETHEGUS]

Kind of sounds like Niello in a way, only with a brass-based mixture instead of the lead-silver mixture. That would indeed be nice to work with!

--Kelsey

[Crispvs]

"I cannot see tiny little lines hammered into a minute hole."

I have watched Erik Koenig doing exactly that, with excellent results.

Crispvs

[jvrjenivs]

That surely is possible. I've also seen Luc de Vos doing it and just did the first try myself. I need some more training to get it nice, but it works. Here a picture of a scabbard by Luc de Vos, which shows the progress. Note that Luc also makes the wire himself starting with thin hammered sheet!