Medieval sword - opinions needed

[AHorsa]

Dear All,

today I had the opportunity to do an x-ray and I´d love to share the two findings of this analysis:

- the guard is folded

- the black structures (less dense material) on the pommel do not correlate with corrosion pittings. My assumption is, that this could be impuritises or inclusions. Maybe the carbon was not hammered out proper of this "lump" of steel?

But I have no idea if this means something. Maybe one of you can tell more on it.

Kind regards
Andreas

[Raf]

I would be happy with that. I was impressed by the way the pommel has been fitted so closely to the tang. As if the pommel had been drilled, heated and driven on to the cold tang. I dont know wether a faker would bother with this kind of invisible detail.

[Lee]

Just as the crossguard shows darker (more radiolucent) areas of less density suggesting old weld or fold lines from the forging process, the pommel also likely has such areas within its mass that appear as these darker spots in this view, but might look more like imperfect welds if the pommel were rotated 90 degrees.

Also, the blade appears to show more corrosive loss than the hilt elements or tang. This may reflect a different composition of material and perhaps protection for a while longer by a covering guard and is not unusual in my experience.

[Tim Simmons]

Really interesting!!!!

[kai]

Hello Andreas,

Regarding the less dense inclusions inside the pommel: You forgot to flip your red markings when viewing the other side of the pommel. Could you post corrected pics, please?

Regards,
Kai

[AHorsa]

Originally Posted by kai

Hello Andreas,

Regarding the less dense inclusions inside the pommel: You forgot to flip your red markings when viewing the other side of the pommel. Could you post corrected pics, please?

Regards,
Kai

Hi Kai,

I reflected / flipped (hope that is the correct translation) the picture of the other side of the pommel. So it should be fitting correctly.

Kind regards
Andreas