Making a Roman Gladius Scabbard

[@enjaymarine]

Absolutely superb - especially as our intrepid announcer is both self-deprecating and possessed of a deadpan humour. Most unusually refreshing in any of our colonial cousinry. These techniques - with a few minor modifications - would also be useful for bayonet and Khukri scabbards. And now we know why it is better to have one anvil outside - if circumstances dictate that the forge is outside - and either another anvil in the workshop, or something similarly solid to beat on...Cold forging anything with big hammers on a metal welding table is no-one's idea of fun... Very educational and entertaining. I'm subscribed...

[@mrlikwid100]

I have to say you did a really outstanding job on the sword and scaboard.I look forward to seeing a Pillum forge in the future

[@cheechwizard7564]

I'm willing to bet that example is much more historically accurate than any of the modern reproductions. Good Job!

[@JJGuccione]

Great VDO & no music - perfect!

[@garyfetrow8324]

This is fantastic. Thanks. Starting my scabbard today

[@seanyackley3700]

Love you style and level of detail in the process, havent seen many others show the ass pain in all 40 different steps in just making the sheath, and the frustration in every step, even if they go according to plan (which they dont)

[@enjaymarine]

And, if you do follow the suggestion below is make a reasonably accurate Pilum, I'd like to see that too - especially choosing an appropriate timber for the handle part. Then there is forging the upper (nearest the tip) hole in the "root" end of the iron section - which current thinking suggests should be OVAL in shape, coupled with a boxwood or similar not-too-hard wood pin through the "Lower" tip mounting hole. This Lower hole should have a metal bushing through the pin mounting holes on each side of the iron shaft base - so that the iron tip is mounted into the wooden shaft with two pins. The "Upper" one is also iron - your annealed and cut-down nails are ideal for this - then the hard(ish) wood pin through the bush on one side, through a Round hole in the iron portion base, then out through a similar "Bushing" on the other side of the wooden shaft. This may sound more complex than you'd imagine such an ancient weapon needs to be, but therein lies the secret of its success. When the Pilum is ready for throwing at your enemy's scutiai, both pins in the square-section, tapered 'Head" fo the Pilum's handle are in place and supporting the iron portion in alignment with the "handle". When thrown, the broad iron point will (hopefully) penetrate the opposing shield and carry on into the body of your foe. Even if the broad tip misses anything essential, the Impact of the iron point will be felt by the wooden lower pin, which will be sheared off flush each side of the iron base, by the two bushes - and with the slot in the forward end of that mounting flange allowing that short amount of rearward travel, necessary to shear the rear wooden pin. Now the pilum tip swivels on its steel forward pin - whether or not the actual iron tip section bends - making it impossible for that scutum-bearer (even if unscathed by the pointy bit) - to remove that pilum from his shield - much less hurl it back at the advancing legions. Thus, that shield will have to be discarded - rendering that soldier defenceless, but - when the day is done and the battle won - ALL the similarly skewered shields may me gathered up by the winning (Italian) team, the Pilum iron tips straightened (if necessary), the wooden pins replaces and that pilum - now perfectly serviceable - now returned to active duty. And that is quite enough of a history lesson for one day...

[@krzysieklesnymikunda4534]

excellent job!

[@danielabeyta7496]

Great video and commentary. Keep this up!

[@sethwarner2540]

I love your dedication to historic accuracy(even though the difficulty seemed insurmountable)! Not to seem condescending, but with a heart of merciful instruction, I have found that rivets do a nd look better if you justtap-tap the head once it is in place. Oh, and love the discussion @ 12:35 to 13:03!

[@40drawers99]

Thanks for sharing your process, having had a go at making my own medieval scabbard it was really interesting to follow along and see how someone else tackled the problems that pop up 👍🙂

[@ianwilson9574]

Great job! Love your brand of humour too!

[@randyshaffer9939]

I need to learn how to make 1 or 2 for mine.

[@cartjj]

Nice work.

[@clippership8381]

A ball peen hammer, I've several sizes, is your BEST friend for shaping metal and forming nice mushroom rivets heads. And you won't necessarily need a big one. For smooth metal surfaces a hand planishing hammer (auto body tool) is your companion. Always be sure to WAX your linen thread (bees wax works well) then you can dispense with linen knots. Instead double back and forth through the last few stitch holes a few times and it locks in place (and you'll be fine).

[@nathanfox2896]

Great vid, need to make a shield now

[@ahmedhossam-ts4vm]

Nice work

[@eduardocometta8902]

Espectacular

[@silviosaecios5187]

Simple wonderfull. Congrats.

[@elijahgaldston4062]

You don’t need to find a historical reason to take a short cut, and anyone who cares enough to comment about it probably doesn’t know how much effort it takes to do this stuff. But either way, the finished product looks really cool

[@AOWGroundBeef]

Why not hide glue to fasten the two halves?

[@gassanbehno7952]

super sehr Gut 👍👍👍👍

[@rideandsmile822]

Sagt ein Kelte zum anderen : " Scheiß Kälte ". Sagt der andere: " Selber scheiß Kelte ".

[@TheKhopesh]

16:40 - 16:50 Technically, using a drill might not be cheating, just unlikely. The ancient Greeks almost certainly had hardened, high carbon steel drill bits when they made the Antikythera Mechanism ~2200 years ago. (We know this because some of the components have ~1mm wide, 4 inch deep drill holes that go through bronze, as well as accurate non-warped holes through some soft iron components.) Here's a video of a guy giving a little of that info as he creates period-accurate tools with period-available technologies as he goes about making his own Antikythera Mechanism purely with means that were available/likely available 2200 years ago for the ancient Greeks. Here's the video: watch?v=N1aj_3tlQhU So given that a lot of ancient Roman technologies and knowledge was shared (and ""shared"") between the ancient Romans and ancient Greeks, it's actually likely that they could have had hardened high carbon steel drill bits available somewhere in the empire. Granted, your average slave quickly hammering out standard issue swords to arm hundreds of thousands to millions of soldiers wouldn't have had the time or cared to use a hand drill and oil for +30 minutes rather than just hammer a rod through some hot iron and call it good, but if this were being made by a craftsman who prided in his work, he could well have done so even back in ancient Roman times.

[@notfeedynotlazy]

To the best of my knowledge, scabbard halves weren't sewn but simply glued to each other. EDIT: Also, profiling AFTER gluing avoids risk of setting them on fire ;-)

[@dr-onestuffido]

I thought you did a great job :) well done buddy

[@FBPrepping]

Whenever you watch one of these videos and it seems "easy"...it´s NOT. These pros make everything look like it is, but it´s NOT!. Great video, and thanks for sharing! LOL 4:02. Dude! that´s a LOT of work. I´d rather used Kydex better. LOL.

[@DIYdiacsnFarmstead]

I'm not into any of that "shit" but i find your sense of humor amusing :) oh and did you already post your stuff to r/metalworking?

[@THEFACILITY]

I did not, I think I've self-promoted on Reddit enough for one video. Don't wanna overdo it. Thanks though!

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

Oh, a plebbitor. Explains the whole hit 'nazi's nonsense.

[@rideandsmile822]

Wow, what an amazing Job, big like from Portugal. Hahaha. ..i think one dislike is from a celtic and the other from a german....

[@EngineersWorkshop]

What happened to the goat eyes? 😁

[@THEFACILITY]

They make a nice soup

[@thejackinati2759]

Hmmm, do you know what wood you used in the scabbard construction?

[@THEFACILITY]

I used poplar

[@thejackinati2759]

@@THEFACILITY Oh, good choice! Light and not too difficult to work with (In my limited experience)

[@Ben_the_Ignorant]

Dude, don't torture yourself making a super tight scabbard, they were a little oversize and lined with wool that was wet with a little oil. This protected the blade against rust, and made the draw smooth and silent with no risk of binding.

[@notfeedynotlazy]

Uh... wrong sword, wrong time period. The only swords, to the best of my knowledge, that _were_ lined with sheepskin with its natural oils (NOT oiled wool cloth) were Scandinavian ("Viking") swords of around the IX century, about 600 years and a continent apart from III century Roman scabbards. Those were unlined on the inside, as most swords ever.

[@actualsurfer]

Nice homage to Fascism!

[@markcannon8522]

Goat leather is cheap? Lol in my area its the most expensive type of the common types

[@PatrickCordaneReeves]

Came for the help with scabbard construction. Stayed for the anti-Nazi comment. Bash the fash.

[@Levikrw]

Swege tool is only💩 if it doesn’t work lol

[@sennewam]

Hnnnnnng

[@crgaillee]

I cant believe your parents gave you free range in the garage. I bet your Father checked his house insurance when he saw you holding the torch between your legs while you heated the metal and fussed with what you had in your hand. Your open jacket while you did that made me cringe. People wont do stuff like this if they owned their own homes and had to pay the mortgage. Safety would become easily a number one topic.