Technology—manufacturing Techniques 297
The pattern welding of the spatha blades in early medieval Europe was a
common technique used mainly for improving the elasticity of the blade. The
quality of these blades could be identified and judged by the naked eye, on
the basis by its pattern. The examination of pattern welding is important not
only for judging the quality of the blade itself but also for its chronological
significance. Ursula Koch observed that different patterns were used on spatha
blades of various phases in the Schretzheim cemetery,29 and she dated the pat-
tern welding to the 5th–6th South Germanic phase.30
The study of pattern welding has a great tradition in Merovingian archaeol-
ogy, though its full examination requires the application of expensive methods.
Various methods used in its study include the cleaning and etching the blade
by acids, during which the high-carbon steel is damaged and leaves grooves
on the blade showing the original pattern.31 This invasive method was mainly
characteristic of the research undertaken in the 1960–70s and was largely aban-
doned under pressure from conservators because it damaged the artefacts.
The classic method of metallographic study is by sampling, polishing and
microscopic examination. A radical approach to such examination is the
method of Stephan Mäder who used the knowledge of Japanese sword polish-
ers, in polishing the whole surface of the blade so as to make the original pat-
tern of the blade visible.32 This method has proved highly divisive, since it can
only be used on less corrorded blades and damages the whole artefact.
Very few metallographic analyses have been carried out on Avar-age weap-
ons which is the reason there is only six studied examples of pattern welding.
The blade from grave No. 1 at Kehidakustány—Kehida – Központi Tsz. Major
was manufactured by a pattern welding of fishbone-pattern,33 an analogy
of which is dated to the first half of the 7th century from the Schretzheim
cemetery.34 This pattern welding method was common in Merovingian Europe.
Three examined swords from the Környe cemetery, the double-edged sword
from grave No. 97 and two stray finds (one of them a spatha with pommel cast
of copper alloy) were pattern welded, and Piaskowski observed several lay-
ers of various iron and steel components.35 Pattern welding is therefore not
29 Koch 1977, 98, Taf. 182–188.
30 Koch 2001, 84.
31 Böhne – Dannheimer 1961, 107–122; Ypey 1982b, 381–388.
32 Mäder 2000, 17–27; Mäder 2002, 277–285; Mäder 2004, 23–31.
33 Szőke 2002, 77, 9/E.
34 Koch 1977, 98.
35 Piaskowski 1974, 123.