Search the Community

Hello all! While I’ve been smithing awhile, I am very new to the forums. I’ve been registered for awhile now but it’s about time I use the forums and learn more. I am posting this to ask if anyone has any websites or books or information on Vendel finds regarding seax blades? I’ve seen several smiths make Vendel seax blades based on grave finds etc., but can’t seem to find anything at all when I start searching away. Am I missing something? As far as viking age stuff goes I have a few sources and friends I can refer to, but the Vendel era is a new interest of mine and it’s catching my interest more and more every day! Any help would be wonderful! Thank you!

It took me several months to finish the project, as it wasn't one of my priorities and I had to attend to some commissions in the meantime, but at least it came out really good to me. For the first time I decided to twist a wrought iron bar to see the effects after etching. Some viking age blades were done without the need of mixing two different kinds of steel when twisting the bars and I wanted to take a look on this visual. I must say that I loved the results and I'm really planning to make it on larger blades soon, maybe even a sword. So, this blade was forged on three parts: the spine and the core bars are wrought iron from the Victorian Age England, the edge is layered 5160 and 15N20 steels. The inlays on the spine are 18k gold. The handle, as simple as it could, is a piece of maple burl treated with linseed oil. The tang was glued to the handle using a home made cutler's resin recipe. The sheath is veg-tanned leather, with iron rivets and brass washers, rings and loops for suspension. The motifs are based on finds from the 10th century York and Dublin. Overall: 21,7cm B. length: 11,4cm B. width: 2,2cm at the widest part Thickness: 0,5cm

Weston Hunting Camp: 1976 This is the finished blade that my cousins (Dan, Ken, Nick and Matt) and I made over the weekend in my forge. This will be the trophy knife that will be used like the Stanley Cup for our annual shooting contest at hunting camp. The handle still needs to be finished. It will be made from deer leg bones we found in the woods last year. Edge is 1095 center is wrought iron then a 10 layer stack of 1095/15n20 and a wrought iron spine. The blade is 5.75" with an overall of 9". I did have some problems with some of the welds only sticking halfway through. I on;y had my cousins for a day so I had to salvage whatever we worked on. I was able to take my arc welder to a few of the gaps and fill them in. This resulted in some "splatter" spots that you can see by the tang in the lower picture and one by the wrought iron seam on the first picture. The good news is it saved it and other than that there were no problems. It survived heat treat (edge quench just in case). Next up, the handle and hardware. I'm just waiting on my cousin to send me the cured bones for the handle. I guess I could start sketching out some ideas for that. For larger pictures click here.