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Up for sale is a short yataghan style blade. The cutting edge is 10" and the OAL is 15.25". Damascus blade and bolsters are made from 15n20 and 1084, mokume spacers are bronze, silver, and copper. MS JD Smith made the mokume. Scales are fossil ivory and each one flairs out to 3/8" thick at the end of the handle. This project is full of curves, there are no flat surfaces to be found. No longer available through Bladesmiths Forum! If you have any questions, feel free to ask :-)

Update: SOLD This is a piece built around undulation, from the waves of the twin serpents in the blade steel and sheath, to the bursting stars of the twists and the wavy grain of the maple in the handle. The blade is made with a W1 edge, 1095/15n20 pattern welding, and mild steel in parts of the serpent. The handle is made from curly maple stained to bring out the figure and the sheath is leather with hand textured brass fittings. The front side of the sheath has a serpent tooled onto it to match the steel of the blade. I should mention that on the rear side of the sheath, there is a small irregularity in the riveting but it is not a structural problem. Blade length: 8.75" (222 mm) Handle length: 6.5" (165 mm) The price for the knife and sheath is SOLD plus shipping If you are interested, you can send me a private message or go to the knife's etsy listing here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/464942116/pattern-welded-serpent-broken-back-seax Thanks for looking! Aiden Carley-Clopton

So, my recent trip trip to Ashokan made me realize I can't let bladesmithing go by the wayside as I seem to be letting it, and I really miss it. (Not to mention how embarrassing it is to stand around so many makers and have nothing you've made to show and trying to be creative in conversations so you don't betray just exactly how terribly long it has been since you made a knife!) So I figure the best way to get back in is to actually finish any number of blades I have laying around here. This knife is something I treated as an exercise in forging larger blades and experimental heat treating several years ago and because I hadn't given the handle much thought I ended up with a handle shape I never really cared for, which is a big reason I never finished this one. Recent posts on the German Bauernwehr and Hauswehr knives gave me inspiration however and this knife is getting a handle makeover, it just needs an extension from the butt end which I will probably affix mechanically in some manner so I can peen a butt plate on to it. The fittings will be wrought iron, which I've never worked with before and don't be surprised if this takes me an excessive amount of time between progress posts. After I decide where all holes need to be drilled in the handle and actually drill them and affix the peening stub on the end I still need to make the fittings and redo the finish and hybrid polish on the blade, as there is still a lot of activity in it i haven't captured to my satisfaction.

Recently there has been a lot of love for the seax here on the forum. I can't even say how much I enjoy that, because they are certainly my favorite and most loved sort of knife to create and to see. It is a wonderful thing to see this old object being given new life and being imagined and reimagined by so many talented and hard working smiths. It is a beautiful weapon and tool that grows stronger and more real as each new smith begins to learn the proportions and the tapers that make these objects sing! So I humbly present the recent work I have made and say long live the seax! First up is a seax I started over the summer at Nate Runals place and finished at home. It was quenched in water on the solstice, which aligned with the full moon. First successful water quench I've ever had, and with modern steel to boot. The steels are 15n20 and 1075 with wrought iron for the spine. The handle is moose and maple with a silver wire wrap. Second is a blade I started the Wednesday before driving to Ashokan. I used two failed pieces of a twist bar and kind of matched them, adding a high layer edge bar and a wrought spine. I heat treated on Thursday and burned in the handle, then polished and assembled on Friday. This one is with my buddy Luke Shearer for finishing! Next is a sheath I made for a beautiful knife Zeb Deming made. That man is a wizard with steel and I was happy to make a sheath for this knife that I now own. Next is a very special milestone for me. This next seax is made of all home made steel that I've made by the light of the full moon. The edge bar is hearth refined steel with some auto hamon and the twist is some of the same material just less refined. The spine is iron and so is the tang. This is the first pattern welded blade I have made entirely from home made material and represents a huge leap forward in my understanding of this material. The steel and iron have been made with friends all over the east coast and has a lot of special material in it, from some Vista Cruiser parts, to some Viking Age knives, to some home made material thrown in by others. It has a lot of soul, and I hope I was able to bring that out in the polish and the etch. Last but not least is one I finished yesterday. It is a knife I forged as a demo piece on multibar welding for a summer class I taught at my college over the summer. The blade I ground and polished then, and it sat for a few months waiting for inspiration. I found some beautiful maple in a box that a friend had cut down from a tree a few towns over, and used some moose antler and got to work. I had originally come up with the design for the carving for use in a hair pin, but decided to borrow it for this knife. The honey comb motif is one I am very happy to have had occasion to use, and the wood carving is the bastardized son of watching Jake Powning's Arctic Fire demo and seeing Dave DelaGardelle give me a carving tutorial over the summer. The garnet inlay is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and this seemed like the right project for it! Anyway I hope you guys enjoy what I've made over the last while and I hope people keep posting more seaxes!

Great idea on that!

well, you are off and running. These are great knives to make. You can always just pin rear bolsters through the sides like modern knife. That was traditional, too. Or weld on a stub to use, or file away material on the end of the handle to create a stub in the rear or even two stubs to use for peening. Any of these are historically correct. Wrought iron is great, forges wonderfully. The only problem comes when you try to stretch it (like with swaging a guard into place). It can't handle even a third of the stresses that mild steel can take, due to impurities. It will just tear, and ruin several hours worth of work. At least, that has been my experience. I love these knives. I am excited to see what you do with it. kc

Isn't it funny the way the eye appreciates the planned layout in a way that makes one's head turn and eyes pop open? I guess I should have guessed that Peter would have laid this knife out based on set proportions and the circle metric, but it never occurred to me to assume that. I just looked at that knife and said "Wowsa! That looks fantastic." Now, I look at the layout drawing with the circles and a light bulb turns on inside my little pea-brain. Thanks for the arrow! 5:9 Huh. Who would have guessed? I have to remember that. No, I'm over 50. I have to write that down!

Digging that blade shape. Looking forward to seeing this one done.

It looks like a beautiful blade. Looking forward to seeing the progress!

Man you've been creating content at such a rate and style lately that its really inspiring. And your attitude about it is so great too. Its obvious across the internet and especially in person that you're totally doing it just for the joy that it brings and I think that really shows through in the thoughtfulness you put into your work.

My first successful attempt at this pattern... Overall length is 12 5/16 inches, handle is maple, fittings are copper, blade is composed of 1080, 1084, 15n20, and 203e.