Hearth Steel Seax Knife

[Niels Provos]

I finally finished the seax knife using the first puck of high carbon hearth steel I had made:

It's a very simple shape using a brass bolster and curely maple handle. Here is a close up look of the blade to bolster transition:

To be honest, I am not a really good knife maker as fit and finish is not something I pay a lot of attention to. There will be a video on my Youtube channel tomorrow that goes through all the steps with occasional quirk comments on my knife making philosophy.

Let me know what you think

 Niels.

[Conner Michaux]

The steel looks amazing! Everything flows together nicely. 

[Niels Provos]

Here is the video:

 

[Zeb Camper]

Cool! Your fit and finish looks pretty good to me! 

[Doug Lester]

As far as fit and finish (I agree with Zeb, yours looks great) I was watching a segment from Tod's work shop on YouTube where Tod said that if he made an exact replica of one of those medieval swords in a museum he couldn't sell it.  A lot of them had problems with fit and finish that a modern buyer would consider amateurish.  Central ridges that aren't quite straight or well centered.  Gaps where the blade is set into the guard.  Poor fit in the handle where it meets the lower guard or upper guard or pommel.  We make our creations to a higher standard than in days of old.  Primary concern then was with the function.

Doug

[Alan Longmire]

Looks better than my first hearth steel blade! I got impatient and only folded three times, with the resulting larger inclusions and delaminations that go with it.  Nice job, and nice video!

And Doug is correct, the old stuff was terribly poorly made by our standards.  The guard on Henry V's sword is actually shimmed on with little wedges, for instance, whereas now we have to make it a perfect drive fit with no gaps or people think it's a bad job.

[Brian Dougherty]

Congrats on your first hearth steel knife!  I think it looks great.

I also appreciate how much effort you put into sharing your learning journeys with us.

[Niels Provos]

Thank you for the feedback. The video work is incredibly time consuming but I also enjoy doing it. Creating the hearth steel puck is also surprisingly fast, e.g. 40 minutes total time. The refining of the steel takes a surprising amount of time. I have another bar half-way refine that I might forge into a larger blade.