EricAndersson

Wow those are truly marvelous! Thank you for posting this. And I’m happy that I was somewhat correct with the start with squares. Do you happen to have pictures of the different stages in forging? I would love to try to make this one day. And would very much appreciate it if you could post more.

I did take a look on Myarmoury but it’s just the diamond pattern that really interest me, and I can’t find any modern reproduction of that one

I think a good smith would need to have a look at the swords in person to have a chance to really figure it out, I really wonder if the pattern matches on the other side or not because if it does I might have a clue but if they don´t I got no idea, I think I read some wear that most patternwelded swords of this period had a sheet of iron between the two different sides. If I have time this or the next month I´ll try to do some small test pieces, because the only way that makes sense to me would be if they did some kind of canister mosaic Damascus but without the canister.... Just had another thought if it´s done like I said they couldn't have started the pattern with diamond shapes because that would distort the pattern to much, they started with squares that when they actually forge welded it turned into the diamond.... maybe so somewhat like this but without the edge added yet

These sword captured my interest the second I first saw them. And I have been grinding my head trying to figure out how the were actually made. And I just saw something that all of them have in common that changed the little understanding I had of them. So what do all of them have in common except the diamond pattern? The pattern elongates towards the tip. Which to me would mean that the blades were forged more after the pattern had been put on. Because I first thought these were made by first forging the blades to near completion, and then adding the pattern by chiselling in the pattern and then adding the extra steel kinda like how the text on the Ulfberht swords were put in. Or am I way off anyone else that have a clue or might even have tried making one? Oh and it seems to be the same on many of the other Illerup swords with different patterns Edit: I just remembered I had these pictures to I think they should support my theory that the blades were forged more after the pattern were added. Because everything looks a bit wavy I don’t think it would look like that if the pattern was added as one of the last forging elements.

Ah thank you my experience is mostly with making knifes and I had problems with finding anything about how it should be on single edge sword of this period. Thank you yeah I have already seen that one. And have already started on the blade. Here is the blade as it is now it took a real banana bend when hardening but I was able to get most of it out when tempering so now I just trying to straighten the rest of it out with grinding. btw I made it pattern welded so I just had to test etch it.

Hi guys I’m currently working on a long sax/single edge viking sword. And the blade is going to have a full flat grind. And I’m wondering what the tang should look like? Should it follow the flat grind or should it be more rectangular. Because if it follows the flat grind it’s going to be a bit thicker than if it was rectangular. Most of the historical examples I have found that show the thickness of the tang shows it being rectangular but I have read from other smiths that they often followed the flat grind. Like this one the tang isn’t totally rectangular and gets a bit thinner towards the edge. And this one only show the tang towards the spine of the blade. But the tang have had to be thinner towards the edge right? And on this one it looks like the tang is rectangular and also a bit thicker than the blade towards the edge. same with this one the tang looks thicker than the blade towards the edge. on the blades were the tang is thicker than the blade towards the edge would that not create a problem when making the handle or putting a guard on the blade? In my mind that would put a unnecessary large gap between the guard and the blade. Or did they even care about gaps in that time?

Hi guys I'm currently trying to make my first sword/long sax a 530mm long (not including the tang) pattern welded viking age single edged sword/long sax. And I need some help to decide what to do with the fullering. First I was going to have a spine of wrought iron but forgot to add it. So because I forgot to add it the fuller is going to have both the pattern welding and the wrought from the middle of the blade. So what I`m wondering is if that would look odd? And having never done a fuller is it easier to grind it out now or after grinding the profile. Or should I even add a fuller and instead go for a full flat grind like on a seax? Would that be historically accurate for a sword/long sax like this? The blade has a spine made out of 1095 and 15n20 20 layer twist and the edge is 1095 sandwiched between wrought iron.