Roman Gladius

I was walking to my university when I found a good steel sheet lying around a construction yard, the kind of piece people nail to the sides of walls to keep them from breaking when someone accidentally bump in it with construction material, so I took it and decided to re-create a historical weapon

The work went really smoothly, but I hammered the sheet a bit too much and it became too thin and fragile. Still usable as decoration, but not at hitting anything harder than jelly...

Historically the gladius was the standard sword of roman soldiers since the time of Roman Kings to the early Middle Ages, they were usually made of bronze, and as bronze isn't very strong, they were usually short and broad swords. With the technology to work iron, received from the germanics, Rome developed the "spata", a longsword, but the glaudis kept his popularity, being fashioned in iron instead of bronze.

I used some thick clothe (an old belt) to make the guard and back part of the handle, and a doorknob to counterbalance the weight of the blade. Isn't a masterwork craft but seems good enough to decorate my wall, next to my Pungio...