"Roman wooden gladius" Topic

Where can one get a decent quality one wood gladius? Not looking for anything overly expensive, just something to maybes use as a prize for a highest placed Roman army sort of thing.
I have looked around a bit but can't really gauge quality, and it goes without saying no made in China stuff please.

This looks SWEET!

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Does it have to be wood?

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I think he is looking for a give-away. So, probably more than a few dollars is going to be prohibitive.

A quick search for "toy gladius" brought up all sorts of hits including this from Amazon. link $13 USD or so. Not bad.

For a reasonably priced, good quality replica Roman wooden training gladius in the USA, you could try:

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This one is the lowest price, but unfortunately currently out of stock:

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This looks like the cheapest one so far

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Spray paint brown if you need it to be "wooden"

Could you tell us why you prefer wood? Well-made wooden "toys" are fairly expensive,especially hand made ones,as the etsy ad shows. The cheap ones are undoubtedly Chinese or Pakistani,which you rule out. So are the metal ones.

Where do you plan to award them? Unless the rules have changed,HMGS cons prohibit all weapons,real or replica.

The metal ones,other than those "real" blades from a few places like Museum Replicas,which are lovely and expensive (c. $200 USD),are decorative items,with what is technically known as a "false edge". It sounds sort of like what you might be looking for,something to hang in the game room.

I got one at a flea market for $10. USD Usually common at $20 USD-25. The cheapest I've seen was at an SCA meet in Maryland. You might check them out.

As a decorative award. I'd prefer one of these,Chinese or not,over wood. Of course,with my abilities,the chance of winning one would be nil.

I assumed he wanted a wooden sword because in Ancient Rome a wooden sword, or 'rudis' , was the symbol given to a successful gladiator when he was awarded his freedom? So giving it to someone with a successful Roman army seems somehow appropriate? Of course, I could have this all wrong!

Mollinary

Several wooden ones on ebay for under a tenner

Yes looking for wooden rudius and don't want to go too cheap or over $100 USD, have seen a few online, even the amazon ones, just wanted to know if anyone knew the quality.
opps didn't know HMGS doesn't like this sort of thing, may have to think of something else, oh well.

Laurel wreaths would still be in character, though not as accurate.

Based on this Wikipedia article, the appearance of the Roman wooden practice gladius was different than that of a steel one (near bottom of page): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waster . Of course, I'm no expert, having only heard of them in novels.

If true, this was presumably to give it weight/balance characteristics similar to those of a real weapon.

MH

I'd forgotten that Museum Replicas has this nice one:

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Of course, if you're feeling really generous,you could go for one of their real ones:

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Or:

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Or even:

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Though obviously way more than you're prepared for.

One thought: you could always present the box,with the actual item "to be awarded at another location" (i.e.,the parking lot). Not the same thing,of course,ceremony-wise!

Will take a look at all of these, thank you, I wanted wood. And I wasn't a aware of the HMGS thing which is another thing to think about.
I was looking for something different that's all.

You could check with them. They might make an exception for a "special case". That is,if there's not somebody with a "zero tolerance" mindset.

That Museum Replicas wood shore is purty. . .

Purpleheart is the gold standard in wooden wasters for HEMA and they have a bunch.

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If you have the gold! But yeah,they're nice,too.

Maybe they'd be less objectionable,safely "imprisoned" in a case.