Mr. Honkers Blog Page

The earliest Roman swords represented bronze cast constructions dating back to 1700 BC. The procedure of Roman sword forging evolved in two steps. Usually the first step was casting into the needed shape. Then the second one was cold working of the edges.

Bronze swords were easily sharpened and featured harder constructions than their iron counterparts. The weak point of the bronze swords was the ability to fracture where an iron sword would bend rather than break. Some scientists believe that Roman iron swords appeared around 700 BC. So, the Roman sword craftsmanship developed mainly in the Republican period (510 – 27 BC). It is due to long lasting Punic Wars (First Punic War: 264 BC – 241 BC; Second Punic War: 218 BC – 202 BC), which required permanent improvement and renovation of weaponry.