For wood of the sword, may I recommend he use boxwood, as this seems to be a very popular type of wood in the Roman era. Most all pommels and guards recovered were made of boxwood.
Ivory could be a challenge because of CITES, but a way around that is using mammoth Ivory (still legal), like I did when making a Ivory hilt for the Newstead spatha. A25 in Miks. However, in good quality, it is very expensive. Fortunatly, the guard and pommel are not very elaboratly carved. There is the option of alternative Ivory, I ordered mine from a firm in the UK which makes the best. However, it is still "plastic". Another option could be a tropical nut which very closely resembles Ivory when polished.
Quote:For wood of the sword, may I recommend he use boxwood, as this seems to be a very popular type of wood in the Roman era. Most all pommels and guards recovered were made of boxwood.
Ivory could be a challenge because of CITES, but a way around that is using mammoth Ivory (still legal), like I did when making a Ivory hilt for the Newstead spatha. A25 in Miks. However, in good quality, it is very expensive. Fortunatly, the guard and pommel are not very elaboratly carved. There is the option of alternative Ivory, I ordered mine from a firm in the UK which makes the best. However, it is still "plastic". Another option could be a tropical nut which very closely resembles Ivory when polished.
Yes, boxwood does seem to be the thing, I have noticed. It certainly is a very suitable material for turning. In the past Tod has used the nut option. Even with a CITES certificate I would not be comfortable using a part of a real elephant. Not far off from using human skin on the scabbard in my opinion!
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Yes, boxwood is good for turning, too, although I prefer sculpting it, as guards and pommels are not the right shape for turning. Do the grip by hand too. But it could well be turned, Romans did a good bit of turning, although all the wooden grips in Miks seem to have been carved, bone and wood alike.
Mammoth has been extinct for a long time, but yeah, expensive. CITES certificate is a bit of a hassle for sure, even when the Ivory originates from legal culling. Nut option I believe is pretty useless for a grip, nuts are too small.
From this it is clear that there is nothing left of the chisel blades, although the nicely-turned handles are well preserved. In contrast the adze head seems quite well preserved, but the handle is mostly lost. It looks rather more curved in profile that the typical Roman adze and may be missing the hammer head (compare with this, below).
[attachment=11515]sy37892.jpg[/attachment]
I suspect the wooden "stake" is in fact the handle of a mallet.
Can anyone suggest someone to reproduce these for me?
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Hi Jay, I haven't seen them do turning, maybe I should ask?
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Robert.
If you have your belt from Konig it would be interesting to know just what the size his belt plates might be for I have made this belt myself a couple of times in the past.
Quote:Robert.
If you have your belt from Konig it would be interesting to know just what the size his belt plates might be for I have made this belt myself a couple of times in the past.
Here is the belt with a scale, does that help? Shortly after it arrived in October I asked them if they would make it shorter, and take the plates off of the back (which I believe is unlikely) and use the spare plates for a sword belt, but they appeared unenthusiastic. Have you ever made the sword scabbard ornamentation of the Herculaneum soldier?
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Robert.
I have not done the sword scabbard you mention but have as already mentioned have done the Pompeii belt, I have of course done the Fulham and many others over the years. Here also are pictures of the belt plates I have done but not cast as appears to be the case for Konig mine were done by hand worked repousse'.
[attachment=11525]bplatesa1.gif[/attachment]
So I have been working on a drawing of the pendant for the sword.
[attachment=11779]pendant.jpg[/attachment]
I think the basic structure is as close as I can get it without better photos or actually looking at the object! The bars along each side are actually chains, as they were flexible. I would assume the discs actually articulate around the bars, perhaps having just a part of the cylinder. I really have problems seeing if the discs have figural decoration or if that is just blistering. If they are figures I have some ideas, but I am starting to suspect that are just concentric rings.
I would appreciate any comments.
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Robert.
Where you mention the discs may articulate looking at them they all appear to have those pictures that are on them pointing all in the same direction vertical with the line of the shall we call it belt, is it considered a belt or can it in fact be a baldric strap for the sword for when we look at our skeleton of this man he looks to have a waist belt of square belt plates or am I missing a few points here.
This device was attached to the outside of the scabbard as a decorative element. They may be awards to notable fighters, like phalerae. I take the liberty of giving Graham Sumner's painting again:
Robert Mason D.Phil (Oxon)
World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C1, Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]
Robert.
Thank you for the paper relating to these type of decorations interesting but what I was considering was this picture of the skeleton of this person / soldier that does show him to have the waist belt that is made up of square belt plates and the sword at his side however that paper does give good information for your scabbard.
[attachment=11788]pompeivue1800x600fn4ke21.jpg[/attachment]
