omalley

All the stuff you do on romans that I like the best on one blade... Love the damascus, the new scalloped guards look great (hope you streamlined that process, took a while the first time I saw you do it) and the brasswork on the case is the best I've ever seen it. Great job, mark!

I've never bought a piece from another (read: real) smith.... and I have no idea what the hell I'd do with a norse axe, but I kinda really want one of these.

more or less "All day I battle against the Jotuns, while he, the one called Odin, sits in Vallhalla and drinks mead. I am the 99%"

there was a thing on facebook. I fixed it. Only like three people will get this, the rest of you should be happy you still have a life

Thank you I usually make them for me with bare steel handles (I forge them a little chunky for grip). These are going to my boss, who wants them like I make mine, and the guy I made them as demos for (A customer asked to see examples of my usual patterns) prefers to do a paracord wrap himself, he'll also be making the sheath. Honestly, I'm not going to have to do a whole lot on this one, just punch two holes in the handle so he can string it.

Thanks, I'm thinking I have to track those down again. I remember when you started this blade thinking I wanted to do something similar... now the idea is really starting to burn a hole in my apron..

Crappy knife. Way too pointy and sharp looking for a knife, and with the handle that well put together everyone will know you didn't really make it. Send it to me, I'll dispose of it. Just finish the carving first In all seriousness, is this based on a historic model? I seem to remember seeing something in my research pretty similar, but I lost all that when I reformatted. I don't mean the small little knife from Sweden. I think it was from a Viking settlement in one of the Baltic countries (latvia, lithuania or estonia iirc). Either way, I really like the geometry of the blade, especially the way it dovetails with the handle. Very cool work! -Liam

Hey all. Been off the boards for a while as I've had basically zero forge time in the last year and a half (left my position as an apprentice, unfortunately) To catch up with old forumites I'm still in school, senior year, studying medieval history now, and I'm learning both old english and old norse, hoping to go to grad school at the university of iceland in reykjavik next fall. Any rate, on to the project... I didn't want to get too ambitious with my first forge time in roughly a year and a half, so I knocked out these two kiridashi in the allotted two hours. If they can be called kiridashi, I'm a little iffy on what actually qualifies, but here's what I got done. Let me know if you have any issues, they're just forged, heat treated, and rough ground, not quite finished.

Just posting these for him, he'll have to post the descriptions.

i've seen things that look kinda like that in the maciejowski bible (incidentally also known as the morgan bible, which is a heckuva lot easier to spell), the winchester bible, and some similar drawings in one of the drawings in the julius work calendar. i believe that would be the cleaver type that you've drawn there and that turns up more often in the morgan bible if memory serves, but i also recall a few lively debates on myarmoury and other sites as to what a falchion is, how much we can trust the artwork, and how many of them were ever actually made. one of the flaming beards will probably correct/clarify any points i may have accidentally made in this post when they wake up in any case.

looks nice, mark!

you know... on a normal forum i wouldn't worry about a little flame war, but on a forum where everyone either collects or makes swords, knives, axes and any other weapon you can name, and are pretty generally well versed in using tooling twice as lethal as their swords.... well... legitimate concern i'm glad the mod's are on top of things or someone would have gotten blood-eagled by now.

i trust you and by extension him. i only ask because i'm taking courses in old english ATM (the ONE cool course offered at my school) and next semester will be an independent study in old norse. I get to translate sagas, this excites me, and yes i know i'm a nerd. still, at least with the northumbrian dialect (which was so danish influenced it was practically norse) i can't imagine much changed other than pronunciation.

not to be a jerk, but wasn't sutton hoo saxon, and not viking?

i'd take a look at modern finnish leukus for handle ideas. they look like the direct descendant of this blade.