Help with Seax bolster

[Caleb Budd]

I know that Seaxes have been worked to death on this forum but I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for what I should do for the bolster? I'm thinking of sandwiching some organic and metal components together but have nothing else besides that. Also any critiques you may have for it so far would be much appreciated! 

Caleb

Edited November 9, 2017 by Caleb Budd

[Doug Lester]

Seaxes are very basic knives and didn't have bolsters.  They were also pretty  much all stick tang knives.

Doug

[Caleb Budd]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've seen numerous mentions of bolsters on seaxes on this page and others and even on the Wikipedia page for seaxes.  Sorry for my confusion if I'm wrong though.

Caleb

[JJ Simon]

They have bolsters as opposed to ferulles.
And to do it simply you can do wood and antler or two types of different colored wood.
You can make a two piece bolster and glue it together so it fits snug by relieving the tang area on both inner sides of the bolster or you can drill through the face and file out the channel to allow the tang to fit through and seat on the shoulders of the blade.

 

[Charles dP]

This image might help.

[Alan Longmire]

I'd suggest looking at Jeroen's powerpoint on saxes, available by clicking the link below his signature.   And I have never seen an old one with a proper bolster, but ferrules, thin plates, and wire wraps are not unheard of.  Of course, if you're not going for historical accuracy it doesn't matter.  My first couple of seaxes were pure fantasy (although I thought they were cool at the time!).  The biggest problem we have with these is the lack of intact handles.  We pretty much don't know what they had, except from paintings, drawings, etc. from the period.  The archaeological evidence is pretty sparse on handle mounts.  Hundreds of blades, a handful of ferrules (including the really cool one from the Staffordshire hoard), a few wire wrapped ones, a bit of horn or two, and that's pretty much it.

[GEzell]

A little critique on the blade shape...

This style of seax usually has a slightly longer clip, and usually looks better with a slightly longer clip.  This makes for a fine point which can be reinforced by changing the grind angle towards the tip.  

This style of seax always tapers in profile from the clip to the tang, the spine and the edge were never parallel.  The widest part of the blade was at the 'hump', and as it approached the handle it narrowed.

This type of seax was always a hidden-tang, as were the vast majority of other styles of seax.  I've been searching for a decade and have only found one seax of this type with the handle intact, the Aachen seax, which has a metal ferrule/cap on the butt end.  Period illustrations often show some type of ferrule but it's impossible to tell what type of material and the exact construction.  Extraordinarily few have survived, which leads me to believe that they were typically organic materials.  

Earlier, continental broadsaxes had long handles, and it's very likely that this trend also applied to the later Saxon style seax.  The Aachen seax has an approximately 10" blade with a handle over 8" long, and the surviving sheaths and period artwork indicate that these proportions were typical.

One other thing... It's very rare to find a perfectly straight line on these seaxes, it's always very slight subtle curves, including the edge.

Edited November 9, 2017 by GEzell

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

What George said. There are contemporary drawings that show either bolsters or ferrules for broken back style seaxes, but they don't survive in the archeological record that we know off. I have heard of references to seaxes with them found in the UK, but I've yet to see them. There's a longsax with steel (?) ferrules though.

Doug, I wouldn't call them basic blades. Basic hilts perhaps, but the blades were either have complex pattern welding or inlays. Every time I think I've found a simple one, upon close examination is appears to be pattern welded. Longsax variants can be a bit more simple in construction.

[GEzell]

I've found two metal ferrules, and neither has very good documentation or providence....

This is from eBay- 

VERY RARE GENUINE ANGLO-SAXON SEAX & FERRULE- (Wheeler type IV)

£155.00

It doesn't say what the ferrule is made of, it appears to be possibly copper alloy?

Another, if the dating is correct, made of silver.... http://www.time-lines.co.uk/saxon-epigraphic-knife-bolster-and-tang-024789-39957-0.html

Both of these could be fakes, but also could be genuine...

Edited November 10, 2017 by GEzell

[Caleb Budd]

Hi guys thank you all for your responses they are a bunch of help and I'll definitely be using them for future seaxes.

GEzell thanks for the critique I'll keep that in mind for my next blade, though I'll keep the clip it has right now. 

I'm going full fantasy and just decided to do a simple walnut handle with a dragon carving, and a copper "spacer"? in between where the handle and wood scabbard will meet.

I'll post some pictures when I get it finished.

[Caleb Budd]

Took me a lot longer to get back to the knife but I finally got the handle done.