Legio V Alaudae Home

Buying Roman Equipment

A few things you need to know

BEFORE BUYING GEAR you need to understand that YOU WILL REGRET buying some cheap piece of equipment because you need something to use next week. I've spent hundreds on crap like that and regret it all. It Always comes apart quickly, its always inaccurate, and usually for the same amount you spend buying replacements or "fixing it up" you could have bought or made a GOOD piece of equipment you can truly be proud of and use for the rest of your life. After all, I would rather you go without a piece of equipment for a while, then have something Inaccurate. All new gear used in the Fifth Legion must be proven accurate before it can be used. All old inaccurate gear should be packed away for video use only. Our gear standards are the same as the twentieth legion now. We have an occasional exception for certain events, but if you are buying anything new, you need to do the research. Legio XX Online Handbook for Legionaries

SWORDS

If any of you are thinking of getting one, do some research or ask me about it first.

One thing to remember is that the Romans spent lots of time and money on their gear and if you see a sword for less than 85 dollars BE VERY SCEPTICAL. The cheapest on the market sword I can garantee is good enough for all legions is the "Roman Gladius W/ Scabbard and Baldric" available on The Find-it Armory. It is item No. SDK1171. I bought one of these at the Smokey Mountain Knife Works a couple years ago for about 60 bucks during a sale. It has a screw on tang and the hilt is a little loose, but these can be fixed very easily. Unfortunately they no longer sell them.

There are, however, SOME instances where i can understand spending money on a China Bazaar sword (Robert says with contempt). Most cheapy swords have scabbards that should be burned immediately, and hilts that i would be afraid to hold while using the sword to cut brush in the backyard. (Yes I've had many sword hilts bend or come completely apart on me after about 3 chops) Sometimes though they will have usable blades. Rehilting a blade is mostly wood-working and i can help you with it. I would not however be willing to spend more than 25-30 dollars on a blade from a cheap sword. Any more money than that and you might as well just buy a finished sword from FIND-IT armory.

Helmets

Right now is an EXCEPTIONAL time to buy a helmet. Deepeeka is revamping almost every helmet on their line and when they introduce the new one, they mark it down quite a bit for introductory rates. At the moment deepeeka has the cheapest usable helmets. Five members of the group have already bought new Gallic G's. Below is Roberts with proper homemade crest and fittings.

Also When buying a helmet, don't buy a CREST with it. Deepeeka crests are simply bunches of hair glued and mashed together and aren't in a proper block. Besides, the fifth legion uses white crests so you probably won't find the right kind anyway.