Now I'm not going to get into using this technique but rather go into threaded pommels in general. I'm by no means an expert, I don't think Skallagrim is either, however his knowledge and experiences with swords probably dwarfs my own. I do however know a little about machine tool and threads in general. To that I'll speak about and my own thoughts on Medieval threaded pommels and what the manuscript tells about during this time period.
As stated in the video, threads weren't common until a century after the manuscript was written. Modern history is full of designs and other technological leaps that were due to weapons. Most notably firearms, Eli Whitney's attempts at standardizing parts which nowadays is required for mass production along with other technological gains directly related to arms production, such as nuclear power and so on. However with the technology developments during the 15th century, I feel that this shows that mating threads were around. This link, mentions screws being used in the 16th century, which is interesting since it states that,"Screws were also widely used in assembly armor. When screws are inserted into metal their threads must be fairly accurate in order to fit properly into the receiving threads." This tells us that the most basic equipment was around to make threads that fitted well enough between two mating parts. A screw's thread is defined by it's diameter, pitch, handedness, taper, and a few other criteria. That's everything we measure a modern thread by. So 16th century threads were widely used, so it would make sense that threading equipment was around on a limited bases in the 15th century.
Going off of what Skallagrim mentioned in this text and ultimately demonstrated we can arrive at several conclusions:
- The Medieval pommel threads are different than the Modern threaded pommel
- Modern pommels use finer pitched threads than Medieval pommels
- Number of threads or threaded length is short
- Mating thread technology wasn't common but was around and people knew enough to understand it in this manuscript when mentioned
- Threads must have been interesting when someone used them on a sword
Since most surviving swords after this period consisted of peened pommels, we can certainly make a few more conclusions:
- Threading tangs/pommels didn't gain common use
- Probably more expensive than an average peened sword
- Probably had disadvantages, especially when comparing to modern threaded swords
There are of course questions to how the handle stayed on and how much engagement the threads actually had. If the handle had a rivet under it's wrap or were somehow tightly fitted to the tang, than this would make sense, as modern swords would fly out away from the handle without a pommel connected to the tang. The other question regards the threads and how a swordsman could unscrew the pommel off in battle. With the coursest and shortest length of threads, the pommel would have a hard time staying on and what was shown/written about would make sense. Using a modern threaded sword, the pommel eventually loosens itself up and may cause issues during it's usage. Even if the Medieval sword had fine pitched threads that engaged well over a short length of the tang, it still would come loose, and I have my doubts on it's maneuverability.
It's of my opinion that what was depicted in the manuscript is a sword that was probably a one off sword made by a smith who knew a guy that made threads and wanted to try something different. While the author may have seen it and mentally thought of the technique himself or heard of someone using it successfully. Either way, I bet he added it for it's "carnival freak show" like qualities and it's a good thing too, it tells us about technology and probably one of the first gimmicky things that didn't pan out well for the time but was written about. (I say this and yet I wonder to what extent this is or isn't true, gimmicky wise, but overall thats what it seems like to me at least)
