Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
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parazonium
Roman Officer's Hellenistic short sword (or long dagger),
the Roman Parazonium is often seen with an
eagle's head handle when held by an Emperor or with a more traditional
Hellenistic style hilt when held by a high ranking officer such as General
Germanicus.
The Parazonium is often held in the palm of the hand, and with the arm bent, reaches to the shoulder; this makes the overall length approximately 22" to 24" including the scabbard (based on my arm anyways). Holding the Parazonium in this fashion gives the impression that it was a status symbol or symbol of rank... more than a weapon.
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Making roman parazonium sword
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parazonium
Parazonium Parazonium
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Parazonium
The Parazonium's scabbard is unique in that the
sheath is never seen embossed or carved with decorations (although it could have
been painted), does not taper to a point, nor does it taper at the sides; the
sides stay flat at approximately 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick. At the end of the scabbard
there is always a half disk (which is sometimes decorated), the half disk is
wider than the rest of the scabbard, and approximately 2" long.
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Project
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
ParazoniumSince I already have an eagle's head on
my
Gladius sword, I chose to make my Parazonium based on the more traditional Hellenistic
style; modeling mine on the Parazonium of General Germanicus Caesar. Found in
1963 in Amelia (of Terni Province, Italy), this 1st C. CE, 2. 9 meter high,
monumental bronze statue of Germanicus now stands in the Museo Archeologico
Nazionale Dell'Umbria, Perugia. PA. The Parazonium sheathed sword hangs
from a baldric on the left, under the his arm.azonium
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Making roman parazonium sword
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parazonium
Parazonium Using the measurements above (which are fairly close to
what an original Parazonium might have been) I drew a 13 1/2 inch leaf style
blade and Hellenistic hilt and handle making mine 21 1/2 inches long (I'm
shooting for 22-24" overall including
the scabbard). I then transferred the pattern to an 11 gauge steel sheet I picked up on
EBay for $26.00 including shipping, and began scoring and cutting.
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a
sword how to make a Parazonium
Parazonium To get around the
Parazonium curves I used many relief cuts, first
cutting in one direction, then the other... which was, needless to say,
tedious... but necessary to get it right
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Parazonium
Then I switched to the grinding disk and smoothed
everything out.
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
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Parazonium I then angled the edges of the
Parazonium blade with my angle grinder
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Parazonium
I cut out the handle with my jigsaw then
spread out some JB Wield over the steel and allowed both sides of the wood to
bond. (I'll drill holes and add rivets later on)
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
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parazonium
Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
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Parazonium I used a coping saw to cut all around the wood, trying my best to line the wood up with metal tang of the Parazonium Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Parazonium
Next it was time to file and shape the
handle Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Parazonium I changed to the etching bit and carved
out the inner border and followed it up onto the handle of the Parazonium
Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword
fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what
parazonium
Using my Dremel with a cutting attachment and router bit, I then routed out the center of the hilt as is with the original example then smoothed it all out Parazonium
Making roman parazonium sword fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what parazonium
I cut out a template to fill the center with a brass sheet, cut it from K&S embossing brass and used brass nails to tack it in place
Making roman parazonium sword fabrication short sword fabrication parazonium measurements what parazonium
I then taped everything off and painted the trim in a similar way as this original Parazonium
Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword how to make a Parazonium
While waiting for the paint on the Parazonium to dry, I started on the scabbard, tracing out the blade, routing out the grooves (I set the router blade to a little more than half the thickness of the blade) spread out some Elmer's glue and clamed it down.
And yes.. once I clamed the wood
together I made damn sure the blade slid in and out!
Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
how to make a Parazonium
Time to drill the handle and bang in
some brass!
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Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
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I lined up the sword and cut the
scabbard to length. Then, using a roll of tape, which I squeezed together to
form a semi-circle, I outlined the disk. After cutting it out with a jigsaw, I
glued the two halves together.
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Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
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Using a doweling kit, I measured half
way down the dowel and drilled some holes on the scabbard side. The placed the
dowel pins into the holes and pressed the disk into the scabbard; I drilled
holes in the disk at the pin points and the dowels lined up perfectly. Before
gluing the disk to the bottom of the scabbard, I trimmed off 1/8 of an inch from
each side for a more slender look.
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Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a
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Next it was time to route out the disk
and add some trim, which I cut from a large piece of molding, to better match
the original.
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Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a
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I really have to smooth the scabbard disk out
but first, back to the sword hilt... I'm just
not satisfied with the way the top came out, it's not enough like the original
which curves up at the sides.
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Although I was rather nervous about
screwing it up... I decided to cut into the hilt and try to replicate the upward
curve of the original
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Roman Recreation Roman Reconstruction how to make a sword
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I used wood filler putty to even
everything out around the hilt and to fix the border, the ancients most likely
would have mixed saw dust with hide glue for a similar repair
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How to make a Greek Sword how
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Next I wrapped the scabbard in leather and glued it
into place
I used tracing paper to get the shape of the disk and cut out some brass, then nailed it into place with brass tacks
Back to the sword, I cut out small sheet of brass for the hilt/scabbard guard
I cut long 2 inch wide strips for the scabbard trim and a smaller strip for the disk trim and bent the brass using the scabbard itself
Roman Parazonium Roman officer's sword
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Recreation Roman sword
I did some taping off and painted two double
parallel lines based on the example above and banged in the brass edging
Roman Parazonium Roman officer's sword Hellenistic Parazonium how to make a sword how to make a Parazonium Roman Recreation Roman sword
As best as I could, I sketched out the
design of the original handle, carved it out with my Dremel, and painted it
following the overall scheme of the project
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Parazonium Roman Recreation Roman sword
I traced out and carved out a design on the top of
the Parazonium based on a close up of the Parazonium of Julius Caesar,
Germanicus has a very similar design on Parazonium however, I could not get a
good close up of it
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