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!

4 hours ago, slanwar said:

I tempered a knife on my kitchen's oven and I forgot the blade inside and my wife used the oven for cooking the Thanksgiving (damn) turkey, anyway I was looking for the blade and my wife told me she found it inside  (never told me she found it after she cooked the bird) and I made a nice handle so I could give the knife to my son for his hunting trip.... he said sucks after a few cuts :))) Going to throw the knife inside the oven to burn the handle and start all over again.

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?

12 hours ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

I took the idea of Don Fogg oil drum and made it a bit smaller. Took 36 inches of 10 inch diameter duct work pipe with two end caps ( found at a local hardware store), lined everything with an inch of kaowool and 1/4 inch satinite. Put a stubby 1/2 inch diameter Venturi burner at the bottom and got pretty good results. Posted pictures of it in the beginners section as I was asking about the grain I got using it. I’m putting together a 36 inch muffle pipe to fit inside it now.

 

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...

7 hours ago, Joshua States said:

West Systems marine epoxy is also popular for its holding power and longevity. I have made several partial tang knives with no retention pin, including my own personal hunter, and not had any failures. I always put a few notches in the tang for additional security.

This is what I do with all my seaxes.

That's a great looking knife!

1 hour ago, AJ Chalifoux said:

Has anyone ever tried using one of these for the same purpose? I was going to build one, but if this works, why not?

I suppose there's no centering features built in, but that seems easy to add with a few tapped holes and angle iron.

https://www.amazon.com/Taytools-468334-Router-Ductile-Hardness/dp/B07GW7X35P/ref=asc_df_B07GW7X35P/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309763890402&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4012042591667662875&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003322&hvtargid=pla-569147430190&psc=1

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.

10 hours ago, Gerhard said:

Short answer: not much

I've had a funny problem about the last 5 years, right about now as the summer arrives full blast it only takes over exerting and sweating a bit much, and my back muscles start cramping.

Sometimes they go into spasms, then I have 2 weeks of pain after that.  I seems to be due to dehydration, just not sure why it hits my back specifically.

So Sunday I was sanding a handle, we had some rain so it was humid and I was sweating like a pig.......Monday the cramps started.

Went to the doc and got muscle relaxant and some pain pills, took them the last time Wednesday evening.

I was sanding 2 blades last night, hands feel weak and I struggle to hold on to the sandpaper.... 

Went to do some clean-up on the belt grinder and properly messed up the one blade....

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.

2 hours ago, Caleb Budd said:

GEzell that is a fantastic langsax! I love the elegance and deadliness it exudes!

I do have a question though, with such a wide tang what keeps the wood from just splitting? is it just the wire? and wouldn't it be a better idea to have a thinner width-wise tang?

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!

13 hours ago, Tim Jackson said:

Nicely done.

What are the biggest challenges in doing a piece so big, other than the sheer length?

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.

10 hours ago, Doug Lester said:

Very nice!  How long is the handle and is it a through tang or a hidden tang?  Also, is the wire wrapping to reinforce the handle or is it just decoration?

Doug

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.

6 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

You nailed the blade shape, and I think the rest as well.  I bet holding it makes you realize you could take an arm off in one swing, long brokenbacks are particularly vicious to wield!

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.

 

I have a question for the people who make kitchen knives or thin ones that flex alot. How do you grind the tips with them flexing so much? I have a grizzly 2x72 and grind free hand because that's most comfortable for me. However, I can't apply enough pressure to effectively take off material because it heats up to fast, maybe in a second, and burns my thumbs. Do you have a jig that backs the blade and prevents flexing or slower speed or just do it even slower by hand?

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.

5 hours ago, Joshua States said:

Certainly true. I remember going to the San Antonio ABS knife show a few years back. There was one maker there who specialized in Japanese style kitchen knives. Every one of his blades had the shoulders out of the handle. When I asked him about it he told me that was "expected" from the folks who bought his knives as a sign of "quality". At the time, I thought to myself, "rubbish", but who knows?

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.

4 hours ago, jheinen said:

What thickness of sheet are you using for the furniture? I assume it's brass? Also, what are you using for the rivets? Brass nails, or making them out of brass rod? What thickness?

 

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.

2 hours ago, Jeroen Zuiderwijk said:

And I finally got another big cermonial bronze sword finished! That's no.2. Then I can start finishing no. 3, then another one for myself, and then I already have people lined up for more.... But once I finished no.3, I'll see if I can do some other stuff purely for fun again. I need that  

That is an epic piece of work.

5 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Heck, I've been doing it off and on since 2001 and I still can't do parallel lines freehand!   Looks good, and yes, captures the feel of the period.  

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.

Well, I'm an engraver now... Luckily the piece I'm using for inspiration is just as sloppy.  I don't think he'd ever engraved anything before either.

Phosphorus bronze destined for sheath fittings...