Making a Roman Gladius Hispaniensis - Stock Removal Reproduction 

Thanks! I did consider setting it in a pitch mixture but never got around to tapping any pine trees for resin. Their mill technology was pretty cool, I wish we knew more about it

Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed it! Not sure why some people say to only make swords when you're experienced, as long as you go slow and have an eye for picking out flaws you can make something at least as good as the cheap weapons back in the day.

Scabbard's on the way, it'll be a while though. Good to hear about the pronunciation, I did my best with Wikipedia's guide

Im from czech republic,Can you send me the drawing od the sword,I can't find it anywhere,i want to make my own at Home,thanks for a fast respond

5/16," or 8mm

There is some evidence it was done, if you copy the title "Paper for special issue on “Aspects of Ancient Metallurgy” Roman iron and steel: A review" into this website (sci-hub.tw/) you can read about a few examples that were carburized after forging to shape. (It's a good way to get around science paywalls.) Some people claim this was done in the forge, but it takes more time and higher temperatures than I'd be willing to maintain in an open forge to have any effect. A closed furnace would be more effective and easier to control. I came across a paper about an Assyrian furnace that was likely meant for this ~600 BC but I lost the link. Not to say there's a direct technological line between the two cultures, but it's a simple enough process that I don't doubt some Romans could have figured out similar methods. In any case the practice doesn't seem to have been widespread. Most steel was simply created directly in the bloomery process and kept apart from plain wrought iron to forge weld into the edges of tools and weapons.

With all that said, Im curious to know your experiences with it so far, if youve used it to cut some more serious stuff than watermelons that is :D

I don't really have it sharp enough to cut anything else with. The original sword was not hardened in any fashion, and I have not seen evidence of bronze age-style work hardening on the edge of any Roman iron artifacts. It was in fact common practice to quench harden blades, but the original did not contain enough carbon for it to do anything. I also took the 8mm thickness from the artifact itself, from what I've read that thickness was not unusual in that time period and Roman swords in general did not have distal tapers

@@THEFACILITY Not sure where you got your information on anything besides info for the sword itself, but that kind of thickness seems ludicrous and not the norm at best. Maybe it was the norm for swords made of inferior type of steel, such as this one? Because I can see a few mm being helpful in providing a more obtuse angle for the edge and make the sword a bit less susceptible to bending in general. Regarding hammer hardening, most iron age implements should have been done with that in mind, at least up to some point in time. Any evidence of such is usually wiped clean in the polish afterwards, especially on swords. It was a practice done for a while before they figured out quenching and more importantly, tempering. Not sure when exactly did they fully abandon hammer hardening, but this sword screams the need for it :D

Get it as close as you feel comfortable with any power tools, then I highly recommend getting a milled tooth file like the one I used. You can also get them on holders for body work that make them function more like a plane, you may find that easier to control. Establish a flat along the blade, then just creep up on your centerlines making strokes diagonal to the blade, applying more pressure to whatever side you need to remove more material from

@@THEFACILITY thanks brother! I was making the strokes horizontal 🙈

In America we don't worry about such things because.... well... 2nd amendment🤣

In America we don't worry about such things because.... well... 2nd amendment🤣

A 5160 Pompeii type is on the list, I got more complete information for one. It's much shorter and lighter, the scale drawing looks like a toy. Not all gladii had plates on the guards or even visible tangs. I'll probably use some bronze on the next one though

That is exactly his point

I would agree if I was trying to make it good, but that's just how thick the original was. They probably didn't have a lot of faith in the material