Greek Hoplite Weapons

THE ANCIENT GREEK HOPLITE

WEAPONS

DORY - XIPHOS - KOPIS

5/13/17

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SPEAR

       The spear (dory in Greek) was the main weapon of the hoplite, made of ash and seven or eight feet long. The head (aichme) was usually iron and was "leaf-shaped" and socketed. Some had midribs, part- or full-length, many did not. Sizes varied quite a bit, from about 5 inches to over 2 feet, but a common range seems to have run 8 to 12 inches. Socket diameters for those spearheads varied from about 3/4" to an inch, up to maybe 1-3/8" for the largest heads (those are unusual!).   On some spearheads there is a visible split or seam showing how the socket was formed by wrapping it around a conical mandrel. On other examples this has been closed up (presumably forge-welded) and is not immediately visible.

       At the bottom of the spear was a bronze buttspike (sauroter or "lizard sticker") c. 9 to 18 inches long, typically with a tubular socket and a tapered square-section spike. This was approximately twice as heavy as the spearhead to serve as a counterbalance. It can also serve to stick the spear upright in the ground, but there is little evidence that it was meant to be used as a weapon. There are iron examples of buttspikes as well, some made in two pieces since there is usually a bronze collar where the spike and socket meet.

       Generally the spearhead and the buttspike socket has one or two small holes near the opening, for a small nail or even a wooden peg to secure it to the shaft. (No screws, please!) The wood needs to be whittled or rasped to fit the socket as well as possible (and straight!), and glue can be used to assure a firm fit.

	Tom Kolb's spearhead is one of the best I've seen, from Manning Imperial. Just under 10" long, and the socket is about 7/8" diameter. Very light and nicely shaped.
	My "alpha" spearhead is 11" long overall, and was hand-forged long ago by a fellow named Brock. The 4 little circles are his maker's mark, but some toy company copied them onto their Greek hoplite action figure's spear!

My "beta" spearhead is ground down from an old Museum Replicas "Large Spearhead", originally a triangular 19-inch monster. I lopped 3" off the socket and 4" off the blade, so now it's under a foot long and looking quite nice. I thinned the blade some, and reduced the ugly weld lump where the blade met the socket.

The BEST commercially available off-the-shelf spearhead is the "Small Spearhead" from Kult of Athena, item number 1823092900, http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=1823092900 . I bought 2. They are 9" long and weigh 8 ounces apiece, with a c. 1" socket. The socket is split, and you can see traces of the hand-forging process between socket and blade. Excellent price, too!

Go hand-forged if you can! The shorter of these was made by Mark Morrow, though I ground the midrib into it. Length is 8-1/2 inches. The longer one, about 12", was forged by my nephew from a piece of sword blade leftover from my first short xiphos conversion project. Both have split sockets, and *could* be a little more nicely finished, but I decided not to mess with them any further. The are on lightweight shafts about 3/4" thick, without buttspikes, and serve as throwing spears (longche in Greek). Their overall lengths are a little over six and a half feet.

My first buttspike is a "first generation" from Manning Imperial, which I found to be heavier than I wanted (though very nicely cast!). After some grinding, it weighs about 1-1/2 pounds, a good weight, and is c. 13" long. Manning now does some VERY nice sauroters, http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_id=619&g_id=1&c_id=14

The Olympia report shows a number of iron buttspikes identical in appearance to the cast bronze ones. They consist of a tapered square-section spike with a spiked *tang* which would have been set into a hole in the end of the wooden shaft. Surrounding wood at that point (to prevent splitting) is a tubular iron socket, which in some cases at least is clearly just a rectangle of iron sheet formed into a cylinder, with a visible open seam. Where socket meets spike is a bronze ring, with a large raised rib around the middle, exactly like the raised ring on the cast bronze buttspikes. And at the top of the iron socket is a flat bronze band or tube, again as seen on the all-bronze versions. Both bronze rings or bands keep the iron socket closed and in place. The obvious conclusion is that iron buttspikes developed *first*, and were then copied in cast bronze! As seen on my bronze sauroter, in its original form the middle socket part has a false seam, mimicking the seam on an iron socket. There is no other reason for the details on the cast bronze sauroter: they imitate an iron ancestor.

So here is my first attempt at an iron sauroter! The spike itself is narrower at the top than I wanted, but it was what I had on hand. The iron part of the socket is just scrap steel sheet wrapped into a tube. I am not sure that any nail was used on the originals, but in this case it goes through the brass band, the iron tube, and the tang of the spike itself, to hold everything firmly in place. The brass joint ring is soldered to the iron tube.

Also found at Olympia were a number of tubular sauroters, mostly bronze but at least one made of iron. The smaller one was very easy to grind out of a modern chrome-plated brass flagpole buttspike! But it's not heavy enough to serve as a counterweight. The larger one started as a door handle, 1" diameter solid bronze (an unused one shown at right). Grinding the outside to shape was no problem, but lacking a 3/4" drill bit suitable for metal I had to try boring the socket out with a series of smaller bits, breaking a half-dozen in the process and dulling several more. (So that other door handle can darn well stay a door handle for now!) But now it's a nice 1-pound sauroter.

This sauroter I built from some sort of bronze socket thingy mated to a ground-down piece of round-section door handle. It's also based on an example from Olympia, though again most have longer sockets than this one. This one I use on the upper section of my Macedonian sarissa to convert it to a handy 8-foot spear when needed. So the socket inner diameter is 1-1/8" and the pin is removable.

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       It is surprisingly (and frustratingly) difficult to find a good spear. There is no commercially-made Greek spear available with decent shaft, head, and buttspike, so you either need to have one custom made, or modify an existing spear, or build your own from purchased parts. Reproduction spearheads are frequently too large, and shafts are often too thick. Ancient spears were thinner and lighter than many people realize! A shaft thickness of about an inch was about the maximum. As impressive as a thick spear with a large head can be, a smaller and lighter one is much easier to carry and maneuver! Might fit in your car better, too, eh?

        Kult of Athena offers a Small Spear Head which is excellent, http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=1823092900 Split socket and forged construction!
--Spearhead 1823092800 looks good, seems a bit large to me
--Arms and Armor Greek Javelin AA227, very nice, can be ordered as just the point without the shaft.

       Deepeeka's buttspike actually looks reasonable! Best to grind or cut off the ring at the open end of the socket, and blunt the point just a little or it will bend over when it hits pavement. (Should have only 1 or 2 holes, not 3, but that's harder to fix.) Armae in France sometimes offers this buttspike separately in their Specials section, though most places only offer it as a set with either their steel spearhead or a bronze one. The steel spearhead looks good in photos but is HUGE. Cut it down by at least a third, lop a couple inches off the socket, and grind the blade to a third its original thickness, and it might work... The shaft it comes with makes a great telephone pole, and is probably some tropical dark wood. The bronze spearhead is too angular, and will need some grinding to be acceptable, but would not have been common in the Iron Age.

       Deepeeka also has a NEW spearhead and buttspike coming soon, both very nice.

As usual, Windlass/MRL has nothing usable.

       Spearheads can be made from old socketed chisels, or from solid steel pavement scrapers/choppers. Certain brass lighting rod tips have been used for buttspikes, as well.

       Some hardware or lumber stores may carry ash or hardwood tool or brush handles, an inch or 1-1/8" diameter and 6 or 8 feet long. Sand off the lacquer finish, rasp to size if necessary, and add your hardware.

       Peavey Manufacturing carries ash poles of various sizes, and will even produce custom dowels (not tapered) for spear or pike shafts: http://www.peaveymfg.com/   However, I got excellent results by having a local custom woodshop (World of Hardwoods) slice me off a length of "eight quarter" ash, meaning eight quarters of an inch (2 inches) thick. Anything an inch or more thick is sufficient. I drew the taper I wanted with tacks, string, and a straightedge, and cut out a square-section shaft of the desired dimensions with a power saw. Then I used an electric hand planer (same one you need for your aspis!) to remove the corners, making the piece octagonal in section, then one more light run down each corner to make it nearly round. Finishing with a rasp and sandpaper was easy. The whole job was much simpler than it would have been to reduce and taper a round-section pole, since I could draw the taper I wanted directly on the flat faces of the wood. A one-inch-wide slice of 8-quarter ash will actually fit TWO tapered spearshafts side-by-side (nose to tail, as it were), and should cost you less than twenty bucks.

SWORD

The blade of the hoplite's sword (xiphos or machaira) is described as "leaf-shaped", and varied in length. The best-known examples are roughly two feet long, but many originals are shorter. The blade was iron (not bronze!), and sometimes had a midrib, but many were plainer with a lenticular or flattened diamond cross-section. It seems that midribs predate the other options, but I don't know for certain when blades without ribs first appeared. Though the blade is usually shown as fairly broad, much narrower ones are known. I suspect that many modern reproductions are too large! Those who have been fortunate enough to handle original Greek swords always remark on how small they are, thin and light.

NOTE: Much popular information on Greek swords comes from Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at War." However, all the archeological examples he shows are from ITALY, and construction methods tend to be different from the Greek examples. Overlying hilt plates of iron or brass are not common in Greece, and again may be a more northern fashion (Macedonia and Thrace).

	The tang of the Greek sword basically matches the outline of the hilt. Some examples have a flange along both sides of the grip area, but on others the tang is simply flat. The tang area was quite thin, around 2mm, abruptly thickening at the base of the blade. There are NO rod tangs (such as Roman or medieval swords typically have). Richard Hook's reconstruction of the xiphos in Nick Sekunda's Osprey book shows a rod tang, but that is incorrect. The grip is made of wood or bone or ivory in a "scale" or "slab" construction, with a shaped plate applied to either face and riveted through the tang. The guard and pommel could be made in the same way, but could be done in other ways (below). The blade at left was made by Dave Akers, and he kindly permitted the use of his photograph.
	The tang can match the entire outline of the guard, flaring out to as much as 4-1/2" wide, with pointed ends. In this case the actual guard is applied by scale construction like the grip, and can be wood, bone, ivory, iron, or possibly bronze. I call this option the "full-width guard tang" (snappy, eh?), and it was used from at least the 6th century BC to the late 4th. Alternatively, the tang can flare out into stubbier "shoulders", as with the right-hand example, with the guard itself projecting beyond. In this case the guard is apparently a single solid block, iron or possibly organic, with a slot cut through to slide down over the grip tang and rest on the shoulders. The bottom is grooved so the top half of the shoulders are actually recessed into the guard. There is some doubt that the shorter shoulders with a one-piece guard actually existed. The shoulders were hammered out quite thin, and it's possible that they have corroded away in some cases, leaving the stubs. The few drawings of what look like one-piece guards still in place could also be in error due to corrosion, etc. So the full-width guard tang with scale construction guard is the best-documented option. Certainly a one-piece guard can be considered for improving a less accurate reproduction sword with a rod tang that needs to be rehilted.
	The bottom edge of the guard is straight, never curved, with an optional semicircular or U-shaped notch in the center. The top edge tapers or curves downward at each end, and the top itself is rounded off to a semi-circular cross-section. It is not thick or bulky in any way. It also seems that there is often a gap in the middle between the guard itself and the tang or blade, so that a tab or extension on the bottom of the grip scale slides under the guard, secured by 2 (or more?) rivets. In other words, the two ends of the guard are connected by a "bridge" in the middle which passes over the bottom of the guard. The profile of the upper edge of the guard can be quite elegant. It can be "double-tapered" like C at left, with a "valley" near the grip then rising and tapering off again near the tip. Or it can simply taper down from the grip as with example A. Type D and E have a "saddle" in the middle. On several Macedonian examples, the center spike on E was decorated as an acanthus leaf or even a scorpion. Iron guards and guard plates can be flush-riveted, so that the surface is smooth. Normal rivet heads (rather than flush-riveted) seem to be smallish and rounded. Also note that rivets near the ends of a wooden scale guard plate can cause the wood to split! At least a couple guards are known that have a gold or other thin metal sheathing over wood or ivory parts. This may be a Macedonian fashion, however--the best example is from Phillip II's tomb at Vergina. Example F, below, is my interpretation of a xiphos guard from Macedonia, 6th century BC. It is shown in the Aigai ebook linked below, on page 159. It is metal and may be hollow (over an organic core). http://www.latsis-foundation.org/megazine/publish/ebook.php?book=75&preloader=1
	Xiphos guard reconstruction by Dave Akers, viewed from the blade. The "bridge" where the bottom of the grip will be inserted is clearly visible.
	The pommel is not completely understood. On some swords the tang ends in a rectangular or squarish section which the grip section neatly flairs into--B at left. This can have a rivet through it (often close to the grip), so the pommel was apparently made by scale construction as well, two halves riveted through the tang. The height of this pommel tang tab can be as little as 3/8" such as on example C, to an inch or so. There are original depictions of pommels that are small discs, which would perfectly fit on a short tab. Conceivably, such a small pommel could be made as part of the grip, each scale simply expanding to a half-disc. On other swords, there is a short rod tang or spike at the top of the grip, clearly for securing a solid pommel. The tang would project completely through the pommel and be peened (flattened) like a rivet over a washer or metal cap. This is actually visible in some vase paintings. The widened base of the spike shown on A at left is to allow for a rivet hole, but it will also prevent the pommel from rotating. Pommel tabs like B and C definitely date back into the 6th century BC and may have been used for centuries. Pommel spikes are seen on 4th century artifacts, but are also suggested by vase paintings from c. 500 BC.

The finished shape of the pommel itself was typically cylindrical or slightly tapered like a bucket (wider at the top). Remains of pommels sometimes include metal rings or bands, either just for decoration or to help secure a two-piece pommel. Pommels are also shown in artwork as hemispherical, and a wooden hemispherical pommel was found at Olympia (see below). It has 2 iron nails vertically through it, which presumably were driven into the ends of the grip scales, though obviously this is tricky! All too many surviving swords are broken off at the top, making it impossible to determine how their pommels were constructed or secured.

	My reproduction based on a xiphos from a grave at Vitsa, #418 in Kilian-Dirlmeier. Here is the blade cut from 1/4" thick steel scrap (using an angle grinder), mostly ground to shape. I found that the 40-grit flap sander was the best tool for removing metal quickly and with good control. Final sanding and polishing has not been done. The blade has a lenticular cross-section, and is 16 inches from point to guard. The pommel section on the original is missing, so I decided to go with a pommel spike. (3/15/14) http://ancientreenacting.proboards.com/thread/689/new-xiphos
	Hilt parts from hardwood, though the original guard was iron and the grip plates apparently bone. My pieces of bone were not big enough, nor was I able to find a piece of steel for the guard among the junk piles that pass for my workshop. Wood was certainly used for some hilts, since blades are found with rivets in place but no hilt parts remaining.
	Top view of the guard, showing the "bridge" into which the bottom of the guard plate will fit.
	View of the guard. I believe the ends should be narrower, but I don't want to risk the thing breaking!
	Hilt assembled! The shoulders of the blade are visible, projecting through the top of the guard. This is not unique! At center you can see the bottom of the grip plate under the guard bridge. The pommel spike is peened over a bronze washer. The hilt rivets are made from bronze boat nails, with the heads cut off and peened at both ends. The wood is coated with linseed oil. Final weight is 1-1/2 pounds.
	Wooden scabbard covered with blue linen, bone throat made in two pieces, bone and steel chape. I call this style of throat "winged"--this one is based on the Olympia example, though others are visible in artwork. The chape is based partly on the fragmentary iron and bone remains found with this sword, and partly on a bone chape from Philia.
	Both of these scabbards have a pair of metal rings attached by leather thongs, making an X pattern on the front. The baldrics show two different interpretations of the "ladder" effect commonly seen in vase paintings. The upper is a simple strip of leather with slots cut in it, leaving "rungs" at regular intervals. The lower is 2 hemp cords connected by bronze bands--in some depictions the "rungs" do seem to be separate pieces of some sort.

			Carving out two pieces of bone that fit the scabbard, each other, and the sword hilt is nearly impossible. There is also practically no information about how the throat was attached to the scabbard core, so I hollowed it out to fit over the thinned-down wood. The one-piece ivory throat from Olympia (#1338 in the scan from Baitinger) has a slot that is wider in the middle, so the scabbard wood was narrowed into a projecting "tab" to fit that. (Naturally I completely missed that little detail in building my first couple scabbards...)
			The chape is also hollowed out to fit on the wooden core. While the Philia chape has an impossibly narrow slot, I decided on a recess in the bone backed with the steel plate to make the "slot". The steel is two pieces soldered together, since my clever attempt to do it in one piece ended in a very warped failure. The two rivets at top center go through the scabbard wood.

	Rebuilding an older-generation Deepeeka xiphos. From a starting weight of FOUR POUNDS, stripped off the hilt and ground it down to match the shape of #425 from Kilian-Dirlmeier. At right, the finished new hilt. The steel guard is simple slab construction without a bridge, with flush rivets, and the grip slabs are cherry with bronze rivets. The pommel is bone, secured with a bronze washer and a steel nut that the pommel spike is peened over. The final weight is 1-1/2 pounds.
	Scabbard construction. The wood core is covered with leather. The top of the wood is trimmed down to a pair of tabs which will project up into the throat, shown rough-cut. (One of the tabs lost a corner, not a big deal.) At right are the finished throat and chape, made of olive wood. You can see the wider central part of the slot through the throat, where the tabs of the scabbard core will fit. The bottom of the core is similarly trimmed to fit into the chape. Olive wood is gorgeous, but always has cracks and flaws.
	Completed sword and scabbard. The baldric is hemp cord (available online in several colors as bondage cord, believe it or not!). The suspension rings are copper washers. Each is knotted into the middle of a pair of flat black leather laces, which are knotted on the opposite (lower) edge. Then I wrapped linen thread around the ends to make nice tassels, and used a curved awl to stitch the laces to the leather covering (only across the back). That will keep everything from sliding. The baldric cord is simply doubled through the rings, doubled over, glued, and wrapped with thread.

Original xiphos from the collection of the late John Piscopo. The blade is about 20 inches long and obviously very narrow! (And slightly bent!) The tang is broken off at mid-grip--it's alarming how common that is.

Note that the modern paper tag has been inserted under the "bridge" of the guard. The "saddle" in the middle is clearly visible, in this case rising not quite to a point. The U-notch is also visible.

I have not seen any information on what types of wood were used for hilt parts. The popularity of bone and ivory suggest that lighter colored woods were preferred, such as holly, boxwood, maple, birch, etc. Local woods such as olive are possible, and can be very attractive (if not easy to work with!). Be aware that North American varieties of woods such as walnut and cherry are noticeably darker than the European versions. Wood stains should be avoided in general, but oil such as linseed will protect the wood and will usually darken it somewhat.

At left, my first sword and scabbard. I made it from an old fantasy "medieval" blade, ground into the shape of the Alfedena sword shown in Connolly (p. 103). It started with a flattened diamond cross-section, and I ground the faces to leave a midrib down the center. Since the blade already had an incorrect rod tang, the hilt is just 2 blocks of wood drilled through, with a bone pommel. A round brass nut secures everything--the "rivets" are just small nail heads, for looks.

Obviously the rod tang construction is NOT historical! It was simply the easiest option for a cheap conversion job. It looks okay from the front, but of course no tang edges are visible along the sides. So this old workhorse is just a "loaner", now! I also suspect that the "ladder-cut" leather baldric is not correct--a pair of cords is more likely.

The 18-gauge bronze chape and throat based on the Olympia finds. The throat is a little over an inch high. The chape is a very common form in artwork, though was probably most often wood or bone. On the back of the chape you can see the nail which secures it--I decided not to put this in front as the original piece has!

The back of the suspension shows two steel rings held by crossed leather thong. Four small nails hold the thong in place. Some scabbards clearly show four rings, others only two.

My short xiphos also started as a fantasy-medieval sword, cut and ground to shape. The blade is 15 inches long. It also has an incorrect rod tang, so the hilt pieces are solid wood blocks drilled through to fit. The pommel and guard are olive while the grip is probably maple. For the top of the pommel I made a bronze washer, then de-modernized a square nut by sanding off the galvanization and heating to blacken it. The hilt "rivets" are simply small nail heads.

The wood and leather scabbard has a wooden throat based on the ivory example from Olympia, and a plain chape of bronze sheet. The suspension is simple leather thong tied on to hold two rings, with glue and a couple small nails at back to secure everything. The baldric is a narrow leather strap--might have been an old dog leash!

At far right, "Shorty" is shown with the two other items that were all made from the same sword blade: a spearhead forged to shape by my nephew, and a small knife I made from the leftover tip. Waste not!

While the Spartans are often said to have used shorter swords than other Greeks, the actual evidence for this is very shaky. Shorter swords certainly did exist, and there are depictions of very small swords being used by hoplites who are identified as Spartans--partly because of their swords? In any case, it is not clear just when blades of 12 to c. 16 inches in length became more common, so it's possible that blades of 18 to 24 inches are more appropriate for the Persian War era. Note that while some people today use the term "xiphos" to refer specifically to the Spartan short sword, that was simply a general Greek word for "sword".

My rough sketch of a short xiphos based on two examples from Olympia. The blade is about 12 inches long by a mere 1-1/8 inches wide! The blade flairs to about 2 inches at the hilt. Three other sword fragments from Olympia seem to be in this size range, and the width matches the three scabbard throats found there. So it would seem that the Spartan short sword is much better documented than we had thought--and often narrower! This matches the artwork quite well, and I can't wait to make one! Note the guard tang shoulders and short tab for the pommel.

Xiphos Research on FAR:
http://ancientreenacting.proboards.com/thread/585/xiphos-research

Museum Catalogs in ebook format: Take a couple hours and browse through every page!
http://www.latsis-foundation.org/default.asp?pid=92&la=2&libID=1

     --Aigai has swords on pages 45, 67, 68, 139, 159, and 271, plus some spears on 48, 69, and 336, all from Macedonia. (Type the page number you wish to jump to in the box at center bottom and hit Return.)
   http://www.latsis-foundation.org/megazine/publish/ebook.php?book=75&preloader=1

     --Thessaloniki has swords on pages 100 and 156.
   http://www.latsis-foundation.org/megazine/publish/ebook.php?book=25&preloader=1

     --Pella has swords on page 373, plus wonderful Illyrian helmets with gold foil decoration.
    http://www.latsis-foundation.org/megazine/publish/ebook.php?book=69&preloader=1

An amazing reproduction: http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=19541

Laconian Short Sword discussion:
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/19-greek-military-history-a-archaeology/289456

        SCABBARDS were thin wood probably covered with leather or fabric, with throats and chapes made of bronze, bone, ivory, or wood. The throat often had a U-shaped stud or projection on top (on each side of the slot for the blade), which mated with corresponding notches in the guard. This is the vestigial remains of the arched guards and round-topped scabbards from the Bronze Age. Some scabbard throats, especially Italian ones, have a lip around the edge so that the guard is partly or entirely recessed. This can cause confusion when looking at vase paintings, particularly if there is a U-stud projecting up alongside the grip. Scabbarded swords may *look* like they have large blocky guards, but when shown out of the scabbard the guards are always slim and tapered, while the empty scabbard still has a large rectangular throat.

       The scabbard hung at the left side from a shoulder strap or baldric which often had narrow rectangular sections cut out from the middle to form a "ladder" effect. It is clear from some vase paintings that this "ladder" could be formed by 2 cords connected at intervals by small bands of some sort, possibly bronze? Other baldrics seem to be simple straps or cords.

       Below are the scabbards I built for two xiphoi made by Matt Lukes (not my swords, unfortunately!). Tracing the blade outline; cutting to shape; routing the cavity; checking the blade fit with clamps; completed cavities; gluing the slabs; outsides rasped and sanded to shape; back of shorter scabbard covered with leather, with slits to remove puckers (not my neatest work!); wood chape and throat; longer scabbard with linen covering; both scabbards completed, with hemp cord baldrics; backs showing how I stitched and glued the suspension bands in place.

       Tafel 66 from Holger Baitinger's catalog of weapon finds from Olympia. I have added (approximate) scales in inches and centimeters. Items 1335 and 1336 are identified as pommels, the larger being hollow-cast bronze and the smaller one wood. Note that both would be secured by a pair of nails driven into the grip (presumably on either side of the flat tang).

       The three items at right are scabbard throats ("mouths"), though the middle one at least would only fit a very narrow blade. 1337 is bronze, 1338 is ivory, and 1339 is bone, a winged style clearly visible in at least one vase painting.

       Item 1340 is identified as a scabbard chape, and while I was dubious at first it actually does match a surprising number of those shown in artwork. So that's what I based my own chape on. Item 1341 is also said to be a chape but is clearly a strap terminal of some sort.

KOPIS

       The kopis was a sword with a single cutting edge, generally curved but sometimes with a straight or nearly straight back. It is often called by the Latin name falcata, but this more properly refers to a non-Greek weapon which is typically more sharply angled. The kopis is also frequently described as a "heavy cleaver", but this is NOT the case--it was no heavier than a xiphos of similar length, light and fast. The best description I have heard was from Jeroen Zuiderwijk, who called it a "kitchen knife from hell!"

       The construction of the kopis was basically the same as for the xiphos, though a few details are even less well understood. The guard can be iron or organic, and the grip slabs can include the pommel, which often takes the form of a bird or animal head. The hilt is asymmetrical, with the guard (and any nose or beak on the pommel) projecting only towards the edged side of the blade. The scabbard is asymmetrical to match, but otherwise is also much like a xiphos scabbard. The trick is that the cavity in the wooden core must be wide enough all the way up to let the blade slide in and out. Some vase painters "cheat" by showing the scabbard shaped more like the blade, which makes it more elegant but impossible!

       Here is an excellent discussion which should be chock-full of information: http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=2729 Also see the ebooks above for several examples.

My kopis is converted from a bad commercial reproduction. At first it weighed over 3 pounds and the crude brass hilt parts were glued on. A few sessions with the angle grinder and a new bone hilt, and it's down to a pound and a half and looks much better. The scabbard is covered with linen, with sheet bronze chape and throat. The baldric is hemp cord, with leather spacers that have copper rivets. I simply tied the baldric cords directly to the scabbard and used glue at the back to hold everything in place.

I did the grip and pommel slabs in separate pieces since the bones I had did not have suitable flat sections that were large enough to do them in one piece. The ram's head is based on an example from Aigai (in Macedonia). The guard is secured with two blind or flush rivets, peened into holes that are flaired at the top and then ground smooth so as to be (nearly) invisible.

KULT OF ATHENA now has two xiphoi (by "Devil's Edge"), AK001 Greek Xiphos, http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=AK001, and AK002 Short Greek Xiphos with Bone Hilt, http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=AK002. Both have excellent blades, light and quite sharp. The ends of the steel guards (seen from blade or pommel) are squared rather than tapered, but that can be easily fixed with a file. The grips are a little long, and the pommels are too tall. The latter might be easily fixed, assuming the steel cap is threaded and can be unscrewed. A shortened pommel can be secured with a nut or finial as shown above, with or without the steel cap (which is a little thick). These were being sold with wooden "scabbards" which were useless as they were, BUT could have been used as the wooden core of a good scabbard depending on the shape of the interior cavity. However now they seem to have gone to a leather sheath which can't be used at all.

DEEPEEKA is currently working on new Greek weapons and other items. At right are some prototypes I received a couple months ago. (Ignore the brown leather sheath thing at far right, that *shouldn't* be what goes into production!) The long xiphoi and kopides are all under 1-1/2 pounds, and the spearhead is 8 ounces with a nice midrib.

If you are looking for an off-the-shelf Greek sword which is GOOD right out of the box, these are the ones. If they are not yet available through www.deepeeka.in or one of the usual vendors, have patience!

       Two of the current Deepeeka xiphoi, AH 4214N Greek Sword(Bone Insert) "Alfedena" (be sure to note the "N"!), and AH 4231 Greek Sword (Bone Insert) "Campovalano" are basically copied from Connolly's illustrations, but are not great. http://deepeeka.in/products-catalog/edged-weapons/swords/greek.html For starters, they are based on *Italian* swords, so they have steel-covered hilts which were rare in Greece (and the way the end of the hilt plate is wrapped around the tips of the guard is flat-out wrong!). The scabbards are also Italian in style, and the suspension loops are incorrect. The blades are most likely heavy, but I have not had a chance to handle them. These two Deepeeka swords should be considered to be "minimally acceptable", at best, after removing the suspension rings. But you may to grind the blades thinner as well. AH4212 and AH4231, and their other current "Greek" weapons, are really not usable. Stay tuned, though, better things are coming later in 2017!

       There are no other Greek hoplite weapons that are mass-produced and available off-the-shelf that are historically accurate enough to be acceptable.   Windlass/Museum Replicas fails utterly. There are things like the BudK sword or the "Spartan Lakonia" which *might* have a usable blade if you scrap the entire hilt and scabbard and rebuild them, but better options are available! With the time and effort it takes to dismantle and rebuild something bad into something usable, you might as well start from scratch and DIY. Custom work by a competent craftsman takes time and money, but you will never regret it. After getting your first custom-made sword or spearhead in your hands, you'll never look at Asian-made repros again.

       You may also think that there is no way you could MAKE a sword, but I amazed myself at what I accomplished with a $40 angle grinder and a scrap of quarter-inch-thick steel stock from a trash pile. Experimentation is nearly free. And then you'll be hauling your other over-weight weapons out to the driveway to angle-grind them into something light and deadly!

Fabrica Romanorum--Matt Lukes-- http://fabricaromanorum.shawwebspace.ca/ EXCELLENT swords as well as fabulous helmets, armor, etc.

Manning Imperial--Craig Stitch, http://www.manningimperial.com

--BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ORDER!! You will probably see Deepeeka's previous swords still for sale for years to come, and vendors are not always careful about catalog numbers.

There is a discussion on the Sword Forum which has photographs of an original hoplite sword,
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=3f86dde7c68ed9e4603c257d718f392d&threadid=25289

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