Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 5 Upon request, and with a fair amount of pride, I present to you from the farthest reaches of Facebook and the forum; the langseax. Here you can see how it started. A wagon rim, a bar of w2, and a bar of 1075. Me and my best friend welded the billet by hand and took turns with a sledge to draw the 4.5"×1.5" billet to around 1.5" square, then having had enough I managed to get the burnt up motor on the hammer to do a little work. We ended up with the above bar that I worked down further by hand and twisted. After that, another bar of wrought and of 1075 was drawn out for the spine and the cutting edge and tacked together. This was then welded and forged into a preform. Then the preform into a blade. And break time! See ya in the next post! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 5 Next was heat treat and polish. then the 4 handle attempts. No pics sorry! after all the hickups, it was onto the sheath. And it's fittings Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 5 And the finished product: Thanks a ton to all those who made it possible. Jerroen, Alan, and Emilliano especially. Thanks guys! Now I guess it's onto the next! Maybe a Viking counterpart! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Conner Michaux 44 Posted January 5 Woah woahwoah hold on Where is the destruction test video??? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason McEntee 50 Posted January 5 That's awesome. The sheath is especially nice! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joël Mercier 198 Posted January 6 Does it smell burning capillaries? I wish I could vote! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 1,223 Posted January 6 13 hours ago, Joël Mercier said: Does it smell burning capillaries? I wish I could vote! It's so close it's painful! There's certainly smoke, I'm just waiting to see if anyone else can spot the fire. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 6 Let me earn it later guys! I'm not sure I deserve it just yet... But thanks again for the guidance and the kind words! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeremy Blohm 209 Posted January 6 I swear I seen a flare up.....maybe we need to pump some oxygen to it!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JASON VOLKERT 26 Posted January 6 WOW!!!!!!!! That sheath puts it over the top for me WOW!!!!!!!!! That is definitely smoken hot!!!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Charles du Preez 242 Posted January 6 Very nice Zeb. Looking forward to the Viking. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 1,223 Posted January 6 3 hours ago, Zeb Camper said: Let me earn it later guys! I'm not sure I deserve it just yet... But thanks again for the guidance and the kind words! Absolutely! And, by the way, it's still not a langseax. Just a long-ish brokenback seax, and a very nice one at that! Be proud of it, and when you decide to claim the beard, I bet it will be yours without asking. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 6 Precisely why I'm not worthy yet! You guys have been the brains! I just took direction . Thanks for the offer! Maybe once I'm doing cool stuff like making swords out of hearth steel and can correctly identify weapons! I thought it was a viking weapon to start. And I truly thought it was a langseax! Shows how much I have to learn! It's been really fun learning about all this stuff though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 1,223 Posted January 6 That's the spirit! For future reference, brokenbacks are mostly Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish/Merovingian, and except for some late Anglo-Saxon pieces generally predate the Vikings. Langsaxes are basically single-edged Viking swords, hilted like the double-edged swords. One of these days you need to get on a real computer with broadband and download Jeroen's stuff! This is still an excellent seax, right on the cusp of a fully burning beard. You have the skills and the attitude. Go read Beowulf, Tolkein, and Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, watch a lot of Monty Python, and make another one. Your leatherwork is already far better than mine! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Dougherty 400 Posted January 6 I've enjoyed watching your progress on the one Zeb. Congrats on finishing up a great piece. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeroen Zuiderwijk 173 Posted January 7 16 hours ago, Alan Longmire said: That's the spirit! For future reference, brokenbacks are mostly Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish/Merovingian, and except for some late Anglo-Saxon pieces generally predate the Vikings. Langsaxes are basically single-edged Viking swords, hilted like the double-edged swords. One of these days you need to get on a real computer with broadband and download Jeroen's stuff! This is still an excellent seax, right on the cusp of a fully burning beard. You have the skills and the attitude. Go read Beowulf, Tolkein, and Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, watch a lot of Monty Python, and make another one. Your leatherwork is already far better than mine! That is not correct. Broken backs are limited to the Viking period, and are pretty much limited to Anglo-Saxon regions, with a few exceptions found on the continent. Longsaxes develop early 8th century, during the 8th century still with curved spine. In the UK, they go from curved to broken back roughly around the start of the 9th century, while on the content saxes go out of use at the time (or disappear from the archaeological record at least). In Norway, the straight back saxes become sword hilted at that time, when we stop calling them saxes and start calling them swords. So, this is a proper longsax in form. Only the patternwelding is of a pattern you'd find on the shorter broken backs. The broken back longsaxes that have patternwelding (that I know), have just a single torsion bar in the center of the blade, in combination with grooves and/or inlays. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeroen Zuiderwijk 173 Posted January 7 P.s. awesome longsax! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 1,223 Posted January 7 See, this is why you should listen to Jeroen! I was off by about 100 years. Keep forgetting the Viking period starts in the 790s, I had 900 on the brain for some reason. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeb Camper 415 Posted January 7 Well, I bought a bunch of books last night. I have already read some of Tolkien's work and we studied Beowulf in school, but I need to revisit it all. This should be fun! I feel like I'm in college or something! I think I'll just take a bit of a break from any serious forging and try to learn and gather inspiration, maybe try making hearth steel. I feel like I'm ready to take it up a notch this year. Jeroen, you are an asset dude! I imagine I'll be bothering you guys more in the months to come. Thanks again guys! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joshua States 579 Posted January 7 Hey Zeb, I just saw this thread. Spectacular piece of work there. Thanks for the reminder that I have some unfinished work to attend to. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kris Lipinski 107 Posted January 9 Beautiful seax! Classic pattern welding and nicely punched sheath! Congratulations! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
