Migration era sword.

This is a reproduction of a late migration era pattern welded shortsword. I made this in 2017.

A sword of this type, is one of the hardest things a smith can attempt. It took me around a hundred hours to complete.

The blade is made from a leaf spring, a tire iron, mild steel and re-bar. The handle is made from walnut burl and white-tailed deer antler with bed frame fittings and lovely copper rivets.

The scabbard is made from poplar, lined with wool and covered with smoked buckskin, with an interlaced sword belt of vegetable tanned cow leather, with a wrought iron buckle, and thumbtack studs.

Pattern welding is a technique that involves forge welding various bars of steel together. This allows you to compensate for poor quality materials and allows you to make a sword out of many small pieces of iron where a single large piece would be unavailable.

With this particular example, the tire iron, mild steel and re-bar were forge welded together, drawn out to twice their length, then split in two. Each bar consisting of five layers, one tire iron in the center, bordered by re-bar on each side, bordered by mild steel on each side. The bars were then twisted in opposing directions and forge welded together. This creates a very strong bar as the opposing tensions in the steel reinforce each other. This also compensates for any bad welds along their length, even if the weld fails the bar will still hold together like rope. The pattern in the first blade is a result of this.

After this, two rods of spring steel were forge welded on either side of the central bar. And after this, the shaping of the blade finally began.

Swords of this type and similar types were used from 450 AD to 700 AD. Before evolving into the viking era sword.

A sword like this would have been a sidearm for a moderately wealthy man. Acting as a secondary weapon for when his spear breaks. This type of sword would almost always have been used with a shield.. The short length and forward balance make it less than ideal for fencing. But it would have hit with a lot of force. It is believed by some that the shield was used for fencing, to push aside the opposing shield and create an opening, then the sword was applied to exploit the opening.

The pommel of swords like this, prevent the sword from slipping out of the hand, even when held very loosely. This allows you to swing in an odd way, where you essentially throw the sword without it leaving your hand. A thrown weapon accelerates faster than a swung weapon.

Another function of the odd pommel, is that because it is the same length as the cross guard, the sword hand can be used to brace the shield while at the same time gripping the sword properly.

Craftsmen in this era loved to combine materials from various origins in the construction of the handle. The idea of an item that combined the product of all three kingdoms, animal for the antler, vegetable for the wood, and mineral for the iron and copper. Greatly appealed to them, and I must say, greatly appeals to me.

Weight, 1.3 pounds without scabbard. With scabbard, 2.1 pounds. The length including the handle is about 2 feet.

The photo above shows the blade after etching, but before polishing. The polishing makes the blade shinier, but makes the pattern more subtle.