Iron wire

[Musivarius]

I'm going to make a small bow saw for cutting marble into shapes. This type of saw with iron wire was used in medieval times in Italy to cut marble slices into shapes for inlay work.
Most probably a daft question but is there evidence the Romans had iron wire?

[john roberts]

Unless hamata rings were forged individually, they must have used iron wire, or at least very thin rods, which is pretty much the same thing.

[Musivarius]

Thanks, thought they must of.

[Dan Howard]

They had drawn iron wire.

Thomsen, E. G. & Thomsen H. H. "Early wire drawing through dies" Transactions of the ASME: Journal of Engineering for Industry Nov. Series B. 96 (1). 1974 pp.1216-21

Thomsen, E. G. & Thomsen H. H. "Drawing solid wires through soft dies in antiquity." Transactions of the ASME: Journal of Engineering for Industry Paper No 75-WA/Prod-6. 1976. pp. 1-5

[richsc]

Without reading the articles, have any draw plates been found?

[Tiberio]

Well I remember seeing a drawplate in a German archeological magazine. I think I still have the copy. Although that particular drawplate I beleive was found with other tools more associated with the making of jewelery. It looked almost eactly like a modern drawplate.

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

Draw plates have been found. I have seen a number of them on e-Bay. The Romans used wire for a number of things, including cheap jewlery, etc. As to any I have seen being specific to mail, that is an unknown.

Stone cutting blades in the shape of round rough, spiral edged wire can be bought at most jewelry supply places, if you do not want to make your own.

Ralph

[Tiberio]

Cheap jewellery? How do you get that notian?
There is a large amount of jewellery with very complicated wire work that is everything but cheap!
Here is one example:


Cheap jewellery was more on the line of crude castings.


Martin

[M. Demetrius]

Wow! that's astonishing detail on those ear rings.

[Tiberio]

Oh there are some very very fancy ancient pieces of jewellery! Especially with lots and lots of filigree work. That is extremly time consuming stuff!
Here are some hellenistic earrings, which would cost a fortune to make as the time one would have to invest to make them would be immense!



I know of no other period with such fancy wire work.

[Vindex]

They are just so impressively beautiful! Fabulous photographs, stunning artefacts.

[Dan Howard]

Draw plates have been found. I have seen a number of them on e-Bay.

Just because something is on e-bay doesn't mean that it a genuine artefact. As far as I know there are only two drawplates dating to the Roman period: one found at Vindolanda and the other at Altena near Dusseldorf.

As to any I have seen being specific to mail, that is an unknown.

There is more than enough evidence to conclude that the Romans made at least some of their mail from drawn wire. I hope David Sim has more on this subject in his new book.