The Armour Archive

Sunday night I watched Conan the Barbarian for the first time since the 80s. The entire opening scene of forging the sword shocked me by how not-inaccurate it was. I refuse to say it was accurate, but they showed it being forged, quenched, tempered, and sharpened. Plus they showed engraving that looked OK too.

They started by pouring the steel into a sword shaped mold, so I didn’t expect to see anything else after that (a la the LOTR ork swords). So it was a very pleasant surprise to see depictions of the actual process. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a B Hollywood movie, but someone in the creation process had a basic understanding of weapon making.

The Swords for that movie were made by the late Jody Samson. I can't find them right now but there were several interviews with him in which he discusses those scenes. He worked with Albion for years before he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.

I was also interested in this point, however geeky it may be as it is about Conan in a movie...
But if the swords had been made out of Bronze, it would have made sense.

I am not sure but I believe that the absolutely earliest Iron swords were made that way until forging developed. Mostly because I am assuming that iron swordmaking developed from Bronze swordmaking. I need to look into this.

Then it would be "the Riddle of Iron"....... .........not so good, it doesn't really roll of the tongue.

Besides, Conan's Dad explains it all in the begining:

Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky, but Crom is your god. Crom, and he lives in the earth. Once giants lived in the earth, Conan, and in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered, and the earth shook, and fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters. But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield, and we who found it. We are just men, not gods, not giants, just men. And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline, for no one, no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts... This you can trust. [points to his sword]

OOOoooo, feel the chills!

I think it is some kind of blasphemy that you only JUST rewatched that movie....


I read/watched a theory on excaliber once that suggested it was a molded sword and the name dervided from "ex" and "caliber"

Origin:
1560–70; variant of calibre < Middle French ≪ Arabic qālib mold, last < Greek kālápous shoe last, equivalent to kāla- combining form of kâlon wood + poús foot ( see -pod)

Anyhow as it was mentioned it would be fine for a bronze sword based on our knowledge of the world...

Oh wait except for this:

Between the time when the ocean's drank atlantis and the Rise of the sons of Aryus, there was an age undreamed of.... or as it originally was written:

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold.

But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

Who knows what technology they used, had and employed to make swords.

Glaukos the Athenian wrote:I was also interested in this point, however geeky it may be as it is about Conan in a movie...
But if the swords had been made out of Bronze, it would have made sense.

I am not sure but I believe that the absolutely earliest Iron swords were made that way until forging developed. Mostly because I am assuming that iron swordmaking developed from Bronze swordmaking. I need to look into this.

Well, Conan lives in Robert E. Howard's mythical Hyborian Age, a time more than 10,000 years ago, long before recorded history, when several civilizations flourished with arts and sciences that would later be lost to the world for many centuries. He imagined exotic, prehistoric versions of the ancient civilizations being written about by archaeologists in the 1930s, and gave them whatever technology (or sorcery) needed for the story.

I am not going to say it was aliens that provided that technology, but it was aliens.

Adriano wrote:

Glaukos the Athenian wrote:I was also interested in this point, however geeky it may be as it is about Conan in a movie...
But if the swords had been made out of Bronze, it would have made sense.

I am not sure but I believe that the absolutely earliest Iron swords were made that way until forging developed. Mostly because I am assuming that iron swordmaking developed from Bronze swordmaking. I need to look into this.

Well, Conan lives in Robert E. Howard's mythical Hyborian Age, a time more than 10,000 years ago, long before recorded history, when several civilizations flourished with arts and sciences that would later be lost to the world for many centuries. He imagined exotic, prehistoric versions of the ancient civilizations being written about by archaeologists in the 1930s, and gave them whatever technology (or sorcery) needed for the story.

Very true, but are not talking only about Howard, but about the visual effect that Milius chose to show the sword being made. It was designed to please and enlighten an ignorant audience and not to be historically or technically correct.

The VERY SAME visual concept was used by Peter Jackson in LOTR, when showing the making of swords for the Uruk Hai at Isengard. They are mold cast in a half mold and then hammered, just like in Conan. This is visually very powerful but makes little sense technically.

The basic copper, arsenic hardened copper and early bronze swords and tools were cast on stone half molds. (that is the molds were open on one side.)

The vertical casting of a bronze sword to get it nice looking is a more advance technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEWIuyeNp2k


A good webpage on the issue... http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1 ... ;start=all