Hilt of the Kemathen Spatha?

[Robert]

Right, pulled the drawing up to maximum zoom, see your point. Miks makes no reference to the leather cover, but in the drawing, it does seem clear enough. So iron, hide, wood, leather it is. Nice blade, too :-)

[XorX]

I`m working on a reconstruction of this gravefind for some time now, so...
Information I have till now is:
the blade/scabbard construction is: iron-fur (hide with hairs on)-wood ( no analysis of wood and fur done :-( )-leather
no information on the material of the handle exists. The "official" reconstructions made in the `90s have a handle made of glued layers of rawhide (crosspieces) and horn. I personally think it was horn or wood or a combination of both.
The blade is x-rayed but no pattern or construction details visible. It might be fullered or flat.

@Matt: that little "axehead" seems to be something like big tweezers but it"s badly corroded. It`s definitly no axehead :-)

@Flavius Aetius: It was a "regular" burial in a wooden chamber; there are no hints on how he died.
normally the "Friedenhain-people" did cremate their dead, this was one of the first normal burials that have been found. He`s interpreted as a local leader of germanic warriors in roman duty. Dating is about 2nd quarter of the 5th century.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

2nd quarter of the 5th century, and the lack of cremation, might mean he had died in Aetius' Campaign against the Norii and Iuthungi in 430/431.

[Thomas V.]

Hello Jürgen,

glueing layers of rawhide together sounds really interesting. Are there any historical examples for this method of construction?

Regards,

Thomas

[XorX]

I don`t know any examples for this method of construction.
In my opinion it is also not as durable as horn or wood would be due to its limited resistance to dampness.

@Flavius Aetius: It might also be that he died at home in his little village at the border having spent a good time after leaving the roman army :wink:

[Robert]

Isn't the grip of the US Marine knife made up of stacked disks of leather? Is that what is meant here as a possibility of the grip construction?

[XorX]

the grip of the reconstructions was made of a piece of horn, the crosspieces ar made of glued rawhide, not leather.

[Scott Woodruff]

The hilts of many of the swords found at Illerup Adal are thought to have been constructed of layers of hide or leather glued or sometimes riveted together. According to Ilkaer and Biborski, the Kemathen spatha had a hexagonal section blade without any fuller. I can look up exact measurements if anyone is interested.

[dave74]

The hilts of many of the swords found at Illerup Adal are thought to have been constructed of layers of hide or leather glued or sometimes riveted together. According to Ilkaer and Biborski, the Kemathen spatha had a hexagonal section blade without any fuller. I can look up exact measurements if anyone is interested.

I am,please
Stacked leather washers is a very common method of making knife handles,I've seen hammers and,hatchets with handles made this way as well. I use it myself on hunting knives etc.

[XorX]

I`ve handled the original piece some time ago and I can tell you: there might be some drawings of the blade, but due to the organic stuff on it`s surface one is totally unable to take any exact measures and cross-sections.
The x-ray made in the 90`s can be used to take measures, but you can`t see how corroded the cutting edges are. So there is some interpretation in the exact measures. The x-ray shows that the blade might have had fullers (it seems to be a bit thicker between core and edges).

visible measures: width:72mm to 63mm (80mm before point)
blade length: 784mm
length of fullers: ca.760mm
width of fullers: min. 30mm
length of tang: 112mm, width decreasing from 26 to13mm
there is no option to take any measures of the thickness