Twisted rods

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for explaining your reasons for focussing on the pamor Gustav.

When we use twisted bar techniques to produce intentional patterns there is a lot more than just the forge work to consider. The pattern that becomes evident on the finished blade is as much the product of the cold work on the bench, as it is the product of the hot work in the forge.

After the final twisting has been completed, the resultant bar then needs to be forged down into a billet of suitable size to be used to produce a blade, & the blade is forged to shape, but then that forged blade needs cold work to turn it into the form that will be ready for heat treating. As we reduce and smooth the surfaces we cut further & further into that twisted material, and what happens is that as we cut deeper into the twisted the material, the pattern changes.

I’m not at home right now, so I do not have access to books, but I believe that either Sache or Jim Hrisoulas illustrates this effect quite well. I went looking for something on line that would show this, I came up with this:-

https://www.provos.org/p/pattern-welding-explained/

scroll down a bit & there are a couple of short videos that demonstrate this pattern change effect pretty well.

Here is another link to a good article that can assist in understanding how various patterns can be revealed in a twisted bar during the cold work, rather than the hot work:-

http://www.vikingsword.com/serpent.pdf

Bearing this in mind, & being aware that twisted bar patterns have been made a great many times, by a great many smiths, over a great many years, and with those smiths having variable levels of skill, both as individuals & in the same smith over his working life, it becomes obvious that we cannot really use a particular pamor pattern to fix the point in time when it might have been produced.

In respect of the blade in post#1, my immediate impression is that I am looking at Madura post 1980, patterning of this & similar designs is not at all uncommon in recent Madura blades, but when I look more closely at some other characteristics of this blade I am reluctant to place it as late as recent Madura. I’d really need it stripped down & in my hand to provide an opinion that I could defend.

As for having seen a keris blade with similar pamor work to this one, yes, I have seen a great many, but none that could be regarded as particularly old, so if this is an older blade, & for the sake of this discussion I think we can take it as an older blade, then I cannot recall having ever seen a blade with pamor similar to this blade that could be reliably dated to earlier than 19th century. Even in the period up to beginning of WWII, keris with pamor similar to the pamor on the blade in post #1 is scarce.

I estimated this post #1 keris as 19th century, & the reason I did this is because stylistically it is old Madura and most of the old Madura blades that we encounter seem to be 19th century. However, keris makers from our current era & from previous eras, have made blades that were copies of earlier styles. Pauzan Pusposukadgo made quite a number of keris that were copies of earlier Mataram blades, I myself made a copy of an old West Jawa blade.

In respect of the working of iron in the forge to make it usable, that has been a part of producing tools & weapons from iron from the very beginning. However, there is a big difference between the processes used in welding to clean iron in order to make it usable & manipulating and welding iron in order to produce a pre-determined pattern. The cleaning process is simply piling & twisting, & although this does produce a pattern, it is a random pattern not a pattern that has been produced intentionally, nor that can be copied. The work involved in producing a pre-determined pattern requires far greater skill than the skill required to simply produce iron that is adequate for use as a tool or weapon.

As Gustav has commented, patterns in welded iron had been produced in Roman times & before, but the welded blades of the Merovingians were deliberate essays in producing predetermined patterns as an art form, proof of the maker’s competence & an assurance of quality.

There is a lot of conjecture & supposition in archeo metallurgy, but it seems to be generally accepted that forge techniques & technology had advanced sufficiently by the time that the Merovingians rose to power for them to develop true pattern welding as the art that we now recognise. The Merovingians were in fact a continuation of the old Roman Empire, but the area that they controlled was limited (in modern day terms) to Germany, Belgium, some of Switzerland & Austria & most of France. This being so, it is understandable that they built upon the Roman foundation of iron working.

Perhaps we should be careful in using the term “pattern welding”. In my understanding it is a fairly recent term that was first used not long after the end of WWII by an archaeologist, & he appears to have used the term to refer to a sword found in North Germany & dating from about the 3rd century, so, not actually Merovingian, but a couple of hundred years later the rise of the Merovingians began & by about the 7th or 8th century true pattern welding was well established. A pattern in welded ferric material might be apparent in very early work, but is it a true pattern, or is it merely a chance happening generated by the work necessary to produce useable material?

The use of the word “pattern“ infers predictability, an arrangement that can be repeated or copied, so what we refer to as a “random pattern” is a contradiction in terms, simply because it is random.

I’d like to be able to think of, & use, the term ”pattern welding” to mean true, repeatable patterns, not the unpredictable result of a necessary process.

[Gustav]

Alan, thank you for the elaborate response!

I believe the blade from #1 surely is 19th cent. and perhaps could be earlier. The Warangan finish on it is an old one, surely pre-WWII.

Regarding Roman swords and pattern welding - there is a series of books dedicated to Illerup Adal finds. Illerup Adal is a bog in Danemark with spectacular deposit of offerings, and one of the most important sources for well preserved elite Roman spatha. The spatha from the site can be dated around 200 AD, along with 90% of weapon finds.

Pattern welding with twisted rods, often more than two, is among the less complex patterns found there. Others include welding of separate, pre-forged parts, similar to Pamor Poleng, or using braiding. Work of such complexity did appear again only since the second half of 19th cent., true for many things Roman.

Pattern welding with twisted rods did appear even on foot soldiers Gladius and Pugio. The problem is the possibility to recognize the pattern. Illerup Adal is an unique situation, mostly blade surface of Roman, not to speak about earlier swords, doesn't allow to see any traces of it without using X-ray.

[A. G. Maisey]

Not at all an elaborate response Gustav, what I have written, I consider to be very simple & very basic. It took me a long time to write it, because my initial response was far too long and far too detailed, I needed to keep cutting & cutting to bring content down to a level that could be both easily understood and that would (hopefully) clear the fog that surrounds the creation of pattern welded motifs:- it is not just forge work, the real art, the real work in revealing those motifs is in the cold work.

In fact, now, & in the past, in Indonesia, although the mpu or pande keris might direct or oversee the hot work, that actual hot work is mostly left to a common smith, the work requiring the real skill is the cold work. I do hope that I have had some success in assisting a little understanding of how pattern welded motifs are created.

At the present time there is a lot of play acting going on in Indonesian keris work, what we call "sandiwara". From what I have read of reports on Javanese work in an earlier era, I think the same applied then too. Maybe it always has applied. In any case, one thing is certain:- what an outsider is permitted to see is a long way from the reality.

Smithing in general seems to have acquired some sort of mystical reputation, there has been a heightened interest in smithing work in recent years, but really, it is just work, & pretty hot, dirty heavy work at that.

I had never heard of Illerup Adal until I read what you have posted. I've followed up on your lead, & it does give a slightly altered perspective on the time frame, still within the long established parameters, but it certainly does appear likely that in later Roman times a good degree of control over pattern welded motifs had begun to appear. But I'm still not clear on whether this controlled work from Illerup Adal can be attributed to Roman workers or Danish workers. Still, this is not really material, the progression remains as previously understood, even if the parameters might be a little different.

The graphics you have posted are really quite informative, can you advise the place & time of manufacture to which they are attributed?

[Gustav]

Alan, those pattern welded swords which can be attributed to roughly 200AD (the latest coin found there is from 187 AD, one can only speculate, that the swords were not necessarily new when their offering took place) are absolutely certainly Roman and absolutely certainly not Danish. Swords with no pattern welding could be of different origin.

To reach such a level in pattern welding seen in those swords - there should have been a way longer then a generation or two from simple piling of rods to pattern welding displayed here. These are patterns, of which a Merovingian, 2 centuries later, didn't even dream of, not denying the mastery working with twisted rods from 5th cent. onwards.

The people who till now are of oppinion complex pattern welding started in 5th cent. are repeating information, which is more then 80 years old and certainly outdated. According to Arbesman...

The drawings I posted can be found in this fantastic publication, which should be in the library of every person with deeper interest in the history of pattern welding:

https://www.abebooks.de/978878841538...qfFM7ZJ-_9rwqw

Vol.11 - text, vol. 12 - drawings and photographs.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Gustav, that would be about right --- I'm quite a bit more than 80 years of age, additionally, I'm not really all that interested in the dated history of creating patterns in ferric material, but rather in the progression of the art. Insofar as pattern welding is concerned, my interest is in how it is done, rather than who did what and when it was done. The history is interesting, certainly, but it is immaterial in the understanding of the process.

It does appear that more recent research has indicated that the Romans were much more advanced than had been previously thought, & that does change dates, but it is not important in the progression of the art:- it is still a progression of a necessary process into a controlled art, & what I have been trying to do is to clarify the actual process of creating a controlled pattern in ferric material, I have not been trying to chart the dated history of that development. Which people managed to achieve that first is immaterial in an understanding of the process.

But what might be able to be regarded as material is that whatever the Merovingians did do --- & some of what they did was excellent --- was in fact, simply a continuation & development of what the Romans had done. The Merovingians were the successors of the Romans in Western Europe.