Twisted rods

[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.