Interesting and beatiful Spatha by Darksword: the sword is cosiderablly longer than the gladius but a dangerous thrusting weapon. I am unsure of its provenance.
From Left to right; Darksword armory Spatha, Del Tin Armory Spatha with its leath sheath to the rightt. The Darksword came with a wooden sheath, but I fashioned a leathed one for it, and prefer that although the wood one is quite nice..
The De Tin Blade follows the pattern of one in a German Museum.
Next from the left is my attempt, It is a blade from another later type sword, yet it fits seamlessly into this group. Like the others it shows the clear marks of hand forging on the blade.
Following that is the "Sword Heroden" of the Thereoden the King, which has to be included because of the totally similarity of the blade to that of the "Depeeka" 3rd Century spatha.
the blade shapes show a clear shift toward longer weapons'swing" .
The last Spatha is allegedly patternered from one in the so -called Nydam Hoard, also from a German Museum and its major detraction is its "resin" (ie: "ersatz bone hilt) Del Tin and my Sow's Ear Spatha's hilts are or wood.
In the late migration period the weapons of the Romans and the 'so called" barbarians, notablly the Goths, became more and more similar.
Even Tolkien's vision of the beautiful cavalry of Rohan were colored by the lines of the weapons of this periods.
Small Wonder they affix our interest to this day.
Del tin and Darksword took about 4 months to deliver, the depictions accurate and the prices reasonable.
J
