GEzell

It's a swedish sax, a very different breed than the English and continental types which had the ridiculously long handles. It's not the only one of this type to have a decorated handle either, it's just extremely rare for the handle to survive in such a pristine condition.

I've found a baldric over-the-shoulder carry rig works well for these big seaxes. Excellent work sir.

Excellent concept and execution man!

The temperature for baking a turkey should have very little to no effect on a knife's temper. What type of steel? How did you harden it? How thin is the edge?

I have made something similar to this. I used a 2ft section of hot water heater tank (14" diameter) lined with kaowool with an opening at each end (one for the burner and one for the blade). I use a 1/2" zoeller style burner and that's almost too much... Two thermocouple probes, one near the back and one near the front, and I can tune the temp to within 2° of what I want. It has given me all the accuracy I could need for carbon steels. I also made a full-sized one for swords up to 40" from 55gallon barrels, you'll need a bigger burner for that. I would think that you'll want an inside diameter of at least 10 inches. Jim Batson made one from an old metal garbage can...

This is what I do with all my seaxes. That's a great looking knife!

It's the same basic concept, though that cutter would need modifications to cut annealed steel.

As far as I know, that Anglo-Saxon seax is the only full length tang I'm aware of (for a langsax, they're fairly common on broadsaxes). As far as tempering, I'm not that familiar with 1075. I recently made one of 80crv2 steel and tempered at 550° for a hardness in the mid to upper 50's. I think that was about right for a 26" blade... There is a group on Facebook called "the seax files", I highly recommend it if you do the Facebook thing. Recently there were photos posted of the Jesenwang seax, and there are some good resources in the files section.

I'm not an expert, but part of your problem could be a potassium deficiency. I struggled for years with muscle cramps in my chest, abdomen, and legs. A friend suggested I take potassium, and as soon as I did the cramps stopped, along with much of the soreness in my joints. I take a tablet when I go to bed and another when I get up in the morning and I can tell if I missed taking it... If I know I'm going to be doing a lot of sweating that day I'll double the dose. It is possible to take too much, but it takes quite a lot, you'd have to eat them like candy to get near the danger zone. Anyway, it helped me immensely and might help you.

A katana has a similar tang about the same width and proportions. The wire wrap at the mouth of the handle serves as a ferrule. I used J Loose's method with the wire, the ends enter the tang cavity and are bent over with the tang serving as a wedge to hold the ends in place... It would be quite difficult to remove now without a lot of persistence. Hard maple is also an extremely strong wood, that being my primary reason for using it (good looking is secondary). With the tang notched and bedded into the handle with g-flex, the tang and the wood work together as a unit, each supporting the other. This is another blade I might try to replicate, as you can see the tang is quite massive, even more so than this one.

Thanks, one of the things that draws me to this blade is it's extremely aggressive profile. The blade is between 7 and 8mm thick, with no distal taper.

Excellent work sir!

Thanks! The biggest challenge is heat-treating and tempering a piece this size, I built a dedicated heat-treating furnace for this purpose. Forging, grinding, and sanding are all complicated by the size though. Thanks! The handle is approximately 10 inches long. The tang is a blind hidden tang, just as it was on the original. It's also over 6" long and quite wide... The wire wrap serves as decoration, helps to keep the handle from splitting, and adds a surprising amount of weight to the handle, helping the balance. Thanks! I was unable to resist testing it on the shrubbery, and it bit me pretty good while I was sanding the blade... It wants to cut and cut deeply, or poke deep holes in things... I kept it as close to the original as I could, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it balances and feels in the hand.

I present to you my rendition of the seax found at Little Bealings, housed in the British museum. The 26 5/8 inch blade is forged from 80crv2 steel. The handle is dark stained hard maple, wrapped with nickel silver and brass wire. The sheath is speculative, as there are no Saxon langsax sheaths that have survived, and very few langsax sheaths at all. I wanted it to be true to the artifacts yet distinctly Saxon in character. The fittings are bronze and include a baldric for carry. The chape was cast by Matthew Berry of Hopkins Forge. This is the largest seax I have finished.

I did a demo for the Athens chapter of the Alabama Forge Council yesterday, these blades are the result. 29 layer 4 bar composites, I should have twisted tighter but overall not bad... 1084 and 15n20.

For the fillet knives I've made I'll take a thin board and cut it to the profile of the blade, then use two spring clamps to hold the blade to it when grinding (and sanding for that matter). I'll move the clamps around so they're not in the way too much. This gives a good solid backing when grinding and sanding. As far as dealing with the heat... I only use fresh belts when grinding thin stuff, they don't build up heat as fast as a dull belt will. Dunk often... I do 90% of my grinding before the blade is heat-treated so it doesn't really matter if I get it hot while hogging. When I quench I'll keep the blade in the quenchant until it drops past the pearlite nose (around 800°) then I clamp it between two thick steel plates, which hold it nice and flat as it cools. I can avoid most warping this way.

There is a purpose behind it. You will notice that you only see it with blind tang knives with no pins. Should the handle ever become loose, you simply give it a few taps, driving the tang further into the handle, and you're good to go.

I'm using phosphorus bronze, it's pretty close to the old tin/copper mix used historically and has a nice gold color... It also work hardens nicely. Most of it is .02 inch thickness, except for where the rings attach which is .032 inch for extra strength. I'm using simple 1/8" brass solid rivets.

I think that the cheap damascus from India kinda gave the raindrop pattern a bad name, as at least 50% of those knives have a raindrop pattern... Here's my own take on a random pattern. I used several different hammers to produce a bumpy forged surface to disrupt the layers, then ground to final cross-section...

It's starting to come together.... Existing langsax sheaths are extremely rare, and none I've seen quite fit the period and culture I was aiming for, so I made stuff up...:). Now to trim and place 33 rivets and start on the baldric.

80crv2 has quickly become my preferred steel for long blades, tempered at 500° it's amazingly tough. There's a lot of good steels out there to choose from though...

It started to get easier by the third piece, overall I'd call the results acceptable, though a bit short of professional... I have an upcoming inlay project, so I think there will be more engraving to come.

That is an epic piece of work.

I'd read that straight lines are extremely difficult so figured that would be a great first project...:) My client and I have a theory that the artist who did the original was rather drunk at the time, so I think I hit that low bar with flying colors. It's not going to be an exact replica, I'm borrowing design elements from several places.