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this sword was started at our hammer in last Oct (swords through the centuries) I welded up all of the billets and did some of the initial patterning in my demo. I have the sword all most finished at this point, so I will start were it is now and then go back to the beginning... might be a few posts I tried to get photos after each day I worked on the sword. patterning the 19 layer billet 19 layer billet welded to the serpent core, 40 layer edge bar ready to weld to the core billet welded, beginning to forge the blade blade forged to shape along with the second blade I forged from the billet (with an added edge bar)

A couple things I have recently learned: I started to file the internal edges of the haft hole/eye. I used to leave it as forged which left the corner angle 90º. While it looked fine as soon as it was used those sharp angles would dig into the haft and mess it up and ruin the haft faster. Now that they have been slightly rounded there is very little damage to the haft when thrown or in chopping. I love making so much better from a rail clip than a rail spike. Although I can finish them to an extreme shine I prefer this medium finish. I just can't get the extra price out of a super shiny axe at this point. I don't like the wood from Blacksmith Depot. The last three orders I have made from them the wood is very "chippy" or "splintery". Does anyone know if they have switched wood sources? They used to put out a pretty good product but lately 3 of 5 hafts have required a lot of additional attention to make it sellable. Having an extra body in the shop helps me keep the shape more true. Earlier this week I started one of the same stock on my own and the eye was so crooked I had to abandon the piece entirely. Then I had my cousin come strike for me and I was able to keep the slot straight and true. Also the blade needed less straightening by the end than usual. Well, that's it for today, folks! Now to spend the rest of my day making posts across the internet and boosting my search ratings. Wanna see more? http://rashystreakers.tumblr.com/post/139074975344/thepxsmith-viking-axe-edc-get-one-for-your

Hello again! I have yet to get bored of axemaking, and i am always finding myself coming back to the subject. Here is another one, the construction method is symmetrically wrapped with a medium-carbon edge bit! It started out as a piece of mild steel, with the dimensions 12x35x190mm, and a small piece of ø25 round ck60 forged out to form an edge insert. The handle material is elm, and the axe is hafted from the top like a trade axe. Here it is, as forged and normalized And here it is after grinding, heat treat and polishing. And here it is as hafted. If anybody has any idea on which Petersen typology this might fit under i would be happy to hear about it.( type G maybe?) Best regards Peder Visti

Huginn + Muninn “O'er Mithgarth Hugin and Munin both Each day set forth to fly; For Hugin I fear lest he come not home, But for Munin my care is more.” Above excerpt from the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál Fast and light it swings Like Huginn’s feathered wings. Quick and brute the seax Like Muninn’s angry beak. 15″ Blade (wrought iron, 1084, 15n20, 80crv2) 5/5” Handle (wrought iron, elk antler, teak) 20.5” Overall 1.2 Pounds 2.125” POB from the hilt If you check out the build thread here you will see where this went from being a 21" blade seax to a 15" blade seax.

Hello! I have mostly lurked about this forum a lot because I'm not really a smith like you other guys. However, I would like to think I've made some decent knifes over the years and would like to show you some of my work. Short introduction. My name is Edvin Sjöberg, I'm from Sweden, 34 years and made my first knife in 2007. I studied Archaeology at Gothenburg University and also have a Bachelor degrees in Industrial Design from Gotland University. Now I have a small business named Audhumbla that makes viking style knifes and takes on different kinds of design work. I recently finished this matching viking set and I'm happy how they turned out! Sheath mounts and bolsters in 925 sterling silver on vegetable tanned leather, silver rivets. Sheaths are treated with beeswax and beech tar. Handle is bog oak, moose horn with sterling silver draw ring and bolster. The blades are made custom for this project by the very talented Łukasz Szczepański. I'm sure it wouldn't have been nearly as nice without his input to the project. Highly recommended. I hope you like them! More pictures on my page, Audhumbla

I've been wrapping up some new axes. Railroad spike core with 1095 edges. They are nicely balanced and throw like a charm. I will be sad to see them go. See more here: Rashystreakers

This is my first post here--I've been playing around with blacksmithing and casting for the past 7 or 8 years, and actually spent some time over the past few weeks to finish this project out. Even though I've made loads of knives in the past, this is my first big big project that I've managed to finish. I had some wrought left over from SOFA, and thought it might make an interesting blade. Blade is god-knows-what-wrought iron and 1080, fittings/handle are cast bronze, wrought and black walnut. Forgive the sheath and handle carvings, both first tries. The sheath fittings are copper sheet, fume oxidized, but when I sealed them, they lost all the really nice blue--should've run a test piece. Here's the blade first off--about 3 inches shorter than I wanted. Fittings and all that jazz, pre-carving Sheath, inspired by the survivng find from Coppergate--not entirely finished in the photos here. I realized, after finishing, that I need to invest in some leatherwork tools--I did all the shown bit with a rounded nail. And here's the finished seax--but again, I did a bit more sheathe detailing, after I took these pictures. I set out to be historically accurate, but ended up being more historically inspired. I l made more mistakes than I'd like to, but learned all the more. Oh well. My next project is a pattern welded seax, about 45 cm blade, but it's in the draw filing process now--I'll post that project as I go.

Here are some pictures of a few recent pieces. ~Bruce~

The Story: I made this knife the other weekend at a smithing demo my guild was doing in Myrtle Beach for a small ren faire. We had hammered away all day on custom pieces for people and as the crowd faded away toward evening one of the blacksmiths threw on some steaks. I realized I didn't have anything decent to eat or cut steak with so I quickly fashioned this eating knife so I could cut my steak with style. I also made a fork from a piece of old scroll work from Philip Simmons shop (he is our guild's name sake). The knife worked great and cuts steak like a boss. It also makes fast work of peppers. I threw a quick copper sheath together today and will probably wear it to another ren faire this weekend, if it doesn't sell by then. The Specs: It is made from 80CRV2. It is a super tough steel that can take a beating. This particular knife has a pretty think spine so it can also give a beating. It’s a great steak knife but also works fine with most vegetables (carrots are a bit of a trick but if you’re a viking you’ll be fine). It’s heat treated and tempered for a nice hard edge. The knife has a cutting edge of 3.5 inches and an overall length of 7 inches. The sheath is made from copper sheet. It can be strapped to a belt via a ring and leather straps or straight to a belt via the belt loop slots. Thanks for looking!

I am trying to help solve a mystery about a type X viking sword unearthed fairly recently and in possession of a fellow just down the road from me. It was found in situ with the remnants of the scabbard and belt and the bronze and iron are all that was left when excavated. The brazil nut pommel is firmly in place, but there was no sign of the lower crossguard. In doing some research, I have found several other type X viking swords from the late viking period which are also missing their lower cross guards, but which have the brazil nut pommel firmly in place. When I had originally seen those swords, I had assumed that they probably had a bronze cross guard that broke off at some point in its past, but with this sword having been discovered with even the very thin bronze chape of the scabard intact (albiet in 2 pieces) it's fairly certain that this is not the case. I'm wondering if anyone had any insight. Here's the sword, only the two largest pieces have been stabilized with electrolysis, as my friend who is doing the conservation work on it fears to do anything with the smaller shards from further down the blade because nothing would probably come out of the tank at all. Here are two swords catalogued in Dr. Alfred Geibig's 1991 book on 8th to 12th century swords So it's apparently something common enough for there to be several good examples completely missing the cross guard, even in very good states of preservation. Right now I am just at a loss as to the why, was it an organic crossguard that didn't survive? perhaps bone or antler? I dont know that I've ever seen a brazil-nut pommel viking era sword with one though. In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to talk the current owner of this sword into selling it to me, but have not yet broached that subject with them as of yet.

Hello to all of you. I am new to this forum and to bladesmithing. I'm a 24 year old man from Norway, and is an educated mechanic. As the title said "One hobby lead to another", and here is why. At the very first day of this year I was out swinging my metal detector when I came across a real Viking sword. Which turned out to be parts of the goods of a viking grave. (Archaeologists did the excavation) And I have to say, that feeling of holding that pice of iron in your hands. Then realizing it is a sword, a weapon of fear that quite possibly have killed men more then a thousand years ago. And also when holding the sword play with the thought of that the last person that had it in his hand was a Viking. Then, about 4 months later I discovered another grave! This time from the period before the viking age, Merovingian age. (if that is what it is called in English?) This time I realized it was a grave before pulling any artefacts out of the ground, The grave contained a sword, spearhead, axe, scythes, arrowheads, and more. I also a few days later found a viking age spearhed So now I really want to learn the art of bladesmithing to hopefully be able to replicate my finds. I do not yet have any tools or furnace, so thet will have to be built and bought first. Thank you for leting me into this forum

Here are a few shots of the next build I will be attempting. It's got a few new things in this build that I have never done. Concave fuller (I will be making a fullering tool and forging first) Intricate 360º handle carving Inlaid copper wires in hilt and pommel I'm pretty excited about this commission project. Also, doing a digital rendering of the sword first was new and I can see how helpful that is going to be. Follow the build here: http://rashystreakers.tumblr.com/tagged/bragi The client chose to go with option A, which quite frankly I was hoping to do anyhow. I would love to hear your thoughts.

I finally finished a baltic war knife I started in August of last year. It's made from Aldo's 1084. The blade is 15" long and 1.25" wide (381 mm by 32 mm). The spine is just under a quarter inch (15/64th or 5.8mm) at the handle and has a very slight distal taper out the where the point begins where it is 11/64ths (4.4mm). I hand finished it down to 600 grit. Grind is flat, and I bought the bevels in so that the edge before sharpening was between .5 and .6mm. I'm excited to take it to a few saplings this spring and see how it cuts. The handle is black cherry with a carving on each side that is a composite of the design off two viking brooches. The white spacers on each end are cow bone with the runes burned in with a wood burner. I'm not sure I'd go the burning route again with bone - bone is very hard to burn. Rune-Masters, forgive me. Through a series of stupid decisions I ended up with two different types of runes, and I'm not sure either rune set is appropriate to baltic knives. They are just transliterations of modern english anyways. The back one, the only one visible when the blade is sheathed, says "bless my friends". Pull the blade and you can read the front ones "Curse my enemies." The sheath came out better than the last one I made. I got my head around the basics of the patina thing, so I'll share what little I know: I used a commercial patina called Slate Black from SculptNouveau. Spray it on clean brass and it turns black: The really important part is how you remove it. I found even 800 grit sandpaper was too aggressive for the look I wanted. It made the brass shiny except for the stamped areas which stayed black. It was a very contrasting look. I ended up using 1500 grit Mirlon (it's like scotch-brite) to remove the patina. It barely shined the metal and left some shading in low spots so the metal looked aged, which was the effect I was after. I didn't put any finish other than wax over the patina because I want it to continue aging. I figure between aging and polishings it should look really good in a decade or so And just because size is hard to judge from pictures, I added this shot of me in anever-so-fashionable shop t-shirt holding it. At 22" OAL it's definitely not a pocket knife.

Working up a quick concept conversion for a leftover handle from the Brag build. I had carved the handle upside down. Now I am changing the lyre to an axe and a drinking horn. The blade will be a 19” seax from a reclaimed farriers rasp. Th he blade engravings will depend on the amount of left over rasp marks after grinding. I made quite a bit of progress today and am hoping to finish forging the blade this evening.I’m not sure what to call this yet. Any suggestions? I'd like to carve the name in runes somewhere, I don't know runes very well and would love some help at some point. Full posts here.

This knife was dug up at the site of Staraya Ladoga in 1986 and just purchased by me from a private collector in Estonia (with a really @#%@#% nice collection, he sent me pictures of some of his nicer stuff... holy cow!) I probably paid too much for it... but it's extremely rare to find a blade in situ with the original scabbard still intact after 1100 years, and I wanted it bad =) While it's not in the greatest condition, you can see from it exactly how it was constructed, as the leather sheath and wood knife handle are still intact. Only one hanging ring is still attached, but as can be seen you can see the 3 layers of leather and finish along the edge of the sheath perfectly clear. The triangular punchwork decoration indicates where the other hanging rings were attached as well.

Just a link from the "Other Weapons" forum on Slinging.org http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1392982390 Feel free to move this topic if it's in the wrong place.

Greeting everyone. I finally got another knife done. It's a small viking style with a 4.5" blade. I forged it from 3/16ths 1084 and tried to draw and grind the edge down quite thin before sharpening so it would slice well. I got it down to .5-.6mm before sharpening, and the result is that it sharpened up very quickly and slices like crazy. The handle is a piece of elk antler that being sold as a dog chew at my local feed store. It was too pretty and fit my hand too well to leave it to that fate. I took Miles and Jul's suggestion and attached it by making grooves across the tang, cutting a nice tight hole, and epoxying the blade in. Seems to have worked quite well. The tang runs back to 1/8" from the end of the handle. The pommel plate is attached with inch long brass nails hammered into predrilled holes that were tight, along with epoxy. The one big change I would have made in this knife is I would not have had the loop on the back stick out so far. I guess I just lost my sense of scale when i was making it. The sheath actually took more time than the knife. I was experimenting with patinas and light texturing of the metal to see what effects I could get. The effect I like the best is on the front band encircling the sheath. The one I like the least is on the chape/nose piece. But I'm not horrified by any of them. Let me know what you think, especially what you don't like.

Ok, so I'm all stoked to make a sword. My first inspiration came while I was on a walk, and found an antler that had a very inspirational branch-off that I immediately imagined as a sword grip. My second came from seeing a lot of pictures of the Ulfberht style blades and I'm considering doing something longer like that. The thing is, I'm not sure if the antler section will be thick enough to hold up to a sword blade of a little over a foot long, which is what I'm planning. The antler is about 3/4ths of an inch across the shortest point and 1 inch across the widest. I'm suspecting getting a bit o' 1084 from Aldo's for Christmas, so I'll wait until after then to begin, or order the steel. So, details about my two options. Antler Handled Blade. Blade will be a little over a foot long, similar in shape and size to the 2013 Arctic Fire blade, though the style of the antler makes me think of an arrow shaft, and so I'm considering a hint of an arrow's barb at the corners near the guard. A part problem will be balancing it out; antler is not very heavy and I do not really have ideas for additions to add to pommel weight, without destroying the pointy ends of the antler. For both blades I'll probably (unless I figger a way to cast bronze copper or pewter) forge the guard from steel, or copper if I can find enough. Width of the blade in front of the hilt about 4", while most of the blade is about 1.5" Ulfberht Style Blade. Most of my inspiration comes from the Bragi sword that was recently finished and the sword currently under construction by Rob Toneguzzo. I'm planning on forging the guard and pommel, either cocobolo or bubinga wood handle with mebbe a bit of carving. The blade would be 2 feet long, 2 inches wide at the hilt and slowly tapering to 1 inch where the point is then rounded. The length of the wood handle would be 4.5", the guard also 4.5" So, which one should I do? I plan on keeping at this, though it'll probably take a few months. Any tips or suggestions before I start out? Design tips? This is a big project and maybe too big for my britches, but it'll be fun (hopefully), stressful (almost definitely), and I'll learn a thing or two. I have to get the photos off of an Ipad so I may not have them up immediately.

So while doing some file work on another knife and listening to some music i was suddenly inspired. The song i was listing to is preformed by a swedish metal band called Amon Amarth very deep into viking mythology. The song was Destroyer of the universe and describes the giant surtur who rises from muspheliem to literally destroy the universe and wage war on the asgardians and such. So somehow or another it struck me that i must when i have the skills enough to forge a beautifully pattern welded viking blade themed and of course made to look as if it would be weilded by the mighty surt himself. I'm thinking of some sort of flame like pattern for the blade as his sword is depicted as a flaming sword with blackened iron fittings and maybe some silver rune inlays fro contrast on the black fittings. What do you guys think any suggestions... ideas. I also did some research on Surtur and such but if i'm wrong somewhere or anyone wants to chime in with more mytho knowhow that would be appreciated also i am in no position to start work on this blade now definitely a future project. I'll probably at some point put up some sketches but be warned not an artist but you guys should get the general idea. P.S also have lots of research to do.

While I have known Jeff Pringle for quite a while, I got to know him much better in 2009, while I was attending a university in California for my Masters degree. I was invited several times to drive up to Oakland for the weekend, slept on his couch, fondled his artifacts, read from his library, and worked in Jim Austin's shop down the road. During this time Jeff and I started tossing the phrase back and forth, "the price of knowledge." It might apply to any sacrifice one had to make in order to learn something. Usually it's our time, or the price of rare books, or the cost of a bribe to get a more experienced smith to open up a little more about closely-held information. At this year's Axe-n Sax-In, we used the phrase liberally, and many got to hear it for the first time. During Jeff's excellent presentation of his original artifacts, there was a brief nod to the work I was starting to undergo with an Axe I'd bought back in 2009, and I've just recently decided to pay the price to know more about it. So, to the grinder we went. First, actually, I sand-blasted the piece, removing most of the original protective coating. I wanted to really see the structure, and instead of the smoothed-out paraffin product used to conserve it, I prefered to apply a thin coat of Renaissance Wax while it was warm, which protects the iron from oxygen (not as durably) but lets me see much more of the structure. Then, in a fit of whimsical desire, I took the axe over to the stone grinder in Jim's shop, invited a couple friends to witness a rare event, and sparked not just the blade, but the neck, and the back of the eye as well. We found that it was very uniform, and depending on how your Mark-1 Eyeball is calibrated, we figure it's between 0.3 and 0.4% C, and observing the slaggy nature of the entire piece (with only some refinement from heavier forging near the edge), consider the axe to be made entirely of steely bloom. No inset bit, no lap-welded edge, no carburized bits apart from others, just a well-built piece made of material just hardenable enough, probably water quenched and not tempered. Not unlike a RR spike of today, if a RR spike were made of wrought iron and was otherwise generally alloy-free. I ground a window open on the piece and applied a little ferric etchant, and we saw a wonderful hint of what was to come... non-homogeneous carbon distribution in the metal, clear layer boundaries as the folding up to make a large enough piece was accomplished, and clear evidence in the way the layer lines flow of how the material was pushed around a bit to get the shape established. Last night, I completed the exercise, and opened most of the right face. The lower beard is too pitted to get completely down to clean metal, but there's enough flat and polished you can clearly see what's going on. Having observed the grain from the top, the left face is clearly the bias side - there are no end-grain boundaries to observe, everything slopes off the right. We had previously supposed it was an asymmetrical eye wrap, and this work confirms that - the weld line is just forward of where the neck begins to slope down the beard. What I did not expect, though, was another very clear weld line forward of that, angled from far forward at the top, to back about halfway down the beard, just behind that corrosion artifact that looks like a river system. After pondering this, tracing the line back to the top grain, what is obvious now, is that the full beard, neck, and eye were made with a piece of steel about the same thickness across the entire profile. This new piece seems welded into place to add thickness to the neck where it was needed, terminating at the front of the eye, and upon which the lap weld of the eye was forged. It is very suggestive that the maker worked with bars of steel of generally the same thickness, and upsetting wasn't much part of the process. There is still speculation that the beard is the result of an "L" bend in the original bar, and my examination of the right side hasn't gotten that far, but from these images you all are free to speculate. Anyway, that's my report. It took spending a few hundred dollars to get this piece, and it took wanting to know about it's guts more than a desire to preserve it forever in black wax, in order to learn what I've shared here. I've paid the price of knowledge on this one, and hope you enjoy my take on it. The polished face is waxed against the weather, and I think I'll put it away for a while now and ponder, while I finish other work that's still on the bench and in my head.

This is my second RR spike hawk, this time using the head end of the spike for the cutting edge. The last one I mis-centered the punch, and though I did go through with it (due to time limits), I really wish I had more time to start over. Thanks Mr. Florianek- really should have listened and started over immediately. I have learned my lesson. Always listen to Petr . The blade took me about three days, and the handle only one. As I said, blade is HC RR spike- not sure about the handle. I recently watched the Ulfberht documentary and have been fascinated with Viking weaponry, so this has been patterned after one. With this make I think I'm feeling a few sparks about my chin (hint, hint!) The blade is normalized twice, edge hardened once, but I did not bother tempering. Am I supposed to? I secured the head by gradually tapering the handle, the hammering the head on using the hardie hole in my anvil (yes I have a real one now) to get a good fit, then secured with the tip of an old broken knife as a wedge. I used to do a lot of chisel carving, so I tried my hand here. Viking w' beard on one side, deer on the other. I took advantage of a knot in the wood and gave the Viking a knotty hat. I'm actually not quite finished yet; still going to rub in some oil to the wood as well as polish the blade a bit. I'll probably experiment with more carvings too. Anyway, comments and critiques welcome!

Trim the orange edges to complete the profile DONE Finish the finish… er, sanding/polishing DONE Etch the design on both side SKETCHED (I haven't etched/carved it yet, just photoshopped my sketch to test it, thoughts?) Make and mount the handle Figure out something to carve on the handle Sell it… any takers? See the full sized images here.

So here is a fun project I was working on while hanging out at Dave Delagardelle's this past weekend, this axe head was greatly exaggerated from one of his sketches but I think it came out well. Dave was kind enough to give me some wrought iron he had to use in the axe body and to kindly let me use his press. I welded up a 16 layer mini billet of 1095 and 15N20 to make the edge and wrapped it in the body of wrought iron. Having almost no experience working with wrought this certainly was interesting and I will definitely be experimenting with it in the future. I also decided that since this axe head was a bit over the top I might as well go all the way in making it crazy. So I pulled out my wood encyclopedia (no joke it's very handy) and looked for exotic woods that have similar properties to hickory so that I could laminate the handle to give it character without really sacrificing strength. And this is what came out of it: 21 inches long of laminated rosewood and hickory, a 9 1/4 inch long head with a 4 3/4 inch long edge. So thanks for looking and I hope you all enjoy a laugh at least at this viking goofiness.

hello Gents! i offer you a sneak peek to my latest accomplishments all coments are welcomed

The blade is right around 18" the fittings are made of brass with Moose antler and curly maple the blade is 7 bar composit done atthe brookfield craft center hammer in as a demo, 7 layer straight 4bars- 7layer twist 1 7 layer straight and the edge is a 25 layer twist. the 7 layer bars are 1095/ 15n20 and 4340the edge bar is L6/1095it can very close to riping it's self apart in heat treat... This one is entered into an art show in guilford CT and will be available for sale after I complete the sheath opon it's return. let me know what you all think! MP