Brass on Swords and Knives in Pre Renaissance Europe
Mar 27, 2014 2:47:12 GMT
Post by Jack Loomes on Mar 27, 2014 2:47:12 GMT
One topic I've encountered quite a bit as I scroll through the net is the use of brass on swords, particularly for "hilt furniture" in other words crossguards and pommels. I personally prefer brass to steel and bronze, brass is tougher than bronze and not as prone to corrosion as steel. Because fingers which contain acidic compounds regularly contact hilt funiture, brass has always been my hilt furniture material of choice.
The idea however has been floated by persons with a financial stake in bronze however that brass was not used before the 1700s or that it is somehow "more modern." We all know the company who has whether directly or indirectly started this myth and their name starts with A.
Firstly that brass is somehow a more modern material is not true in fact brass has been used since prehistory and for as long as bronze has and probably was identified as different from Bronze by at least the 8th Century B.C. See this excellent Wikipedia Article for more details: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass#History
I thought I would list a number of Sword-Site's collection that prominently use brass in their hilt furniture and elsewhere:
sword-site.com/thread/612/knife-brass-flower-shaped-pommel
sword-site.com/thread/408/oakeshott-sword-transitional-viking-medieval
sword-site.com/thread/277/thorpe-falchion
sword-site.com/thread/180/seax-beagnoth
& there are many more. Often in fact when a sword is listed as having bronze fittings by a museum but the patina on the "bronze" is green, the copper alloy is far closer to brass than bronze such as in this example:
sword-site.com/thread/108/roman-tribunes-paraspatha-parazonium
You can see this difference in patina of actual bronze as in this example:
sword-site.com/thread/107/roman-staff-officers-gladius-hispaniensis
The brass / bronze confusion is another in a long list of internet consensuses that are poorly thought out and just not backed up by the archaeological record. I tackled another one here regarding the use of bone grips on Gladii :
sword-site.com/thread/143/roman-swords-frequently-bone-handles
It is just staggering how some companies attempt revisionist histrionics to bend opinion to their way of seeing things and make history more amenable to their products, and the internet has made it possible for them. The best way to deal with them is expose their theories or propositions to the historical record and see how it fares.
The idea however has been floated by persons with a financial stake in bronze however that brass was not used before the 1700s or that it is somehow "more modern." We all know the company who has whether directly or indirectly started this myth and their name starts with A.
Firstly that brass is somehow a more modern material is not true in fact brass has been used since prehistory and for as long as bronze has and probably was identified as different from Bronze by at least the 8th Century B.C. See this excellent Wikipedia Article for more details: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass#History
I thought I would list a number of Sword-Site's collection that prominently use brass in their hilt furniture and elsewhere:
sword-site.com/thread/612/knife-brass-flower-shaped-pommel
sword-site.com/thread/408/oakeshott-sword-transitional-viking-medieval
sword-site.com/thread/277/thorpe-falchion
sword-site.com/thread/180/seax-beagnoth
& there are many more. Often in fact when a sword is listed as having bronze fittings by a museum but the patina on the "bronze" is green, the copper alloy is far closer to brass than bronze such as in this example:
sword-site.com/thread/108/roman-tribunes-paraspatha-parazonium
You can see this difference in patina of actual bronze as in this example:
sword-site.com/thread/107/roman-staff-officers-gladius-hispaniensis
The brass / bronze confusion is another in a long list of internet consensuses that are poorly thought out and just not backed up by the archaeological record. I tackled another one here regarding the use of bone grips on Gladii :
sword-site.com/thread/143/roman-swords-frequently-bone-handles
It is just staggering how some companies attempt revisionist histrionics to bend opinion to their way of seeing things and make history more amenable to their products, and the internet has made it possible for them. The best way to deal with them is expose their theories or propositions to the historical record and see how it fares.