Are medieval weapons we see in museums perfect? When making a reproduction, how good should it be?
I use examples of the IX949 from the Royal Armouries supplied by www.todsworkshop.com and antenna and baselard daggers from The Royal Armouries and a Mary Rose bollock dagger – all three from www.todcutler.com to illustrate my points and show where modern reproductions have to at least match the originals in quality.
Carefully study pictures or real artefacts in museums and you will see that they are rarely, if ever, perfect. Asymmetries, casting flaws, non-flowing bends, file marks and pure and simple mistakes are there in every piece and often you really don’t have to look hard to find them.
Make a reproduction to the same quality as those in museums and you won’t sell it. I talk about my belief that you should take the essence of a piece and make your reproduced artefact well, but not to be over concerned with perfection.
By making a piece perfect, you make it imperfect, because it becomes unlike those you see.
