Ebay item (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73464&item=3737804279&rd=1)
http://i17.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/2a/5c/45_12_s.JPG

That's one of my favorite sax shapes...

Sweet !
that is a super nice shape..... I love the fullers.... looks like there is bout 5 grooves that taper to a focal point..... argh... that musta been hard to do

good post
Greg

Thanks for posting that link. I find these artifacts truly fascinating. All things considered (and I know nothing about the market for items such as this) I think the price seems pretty reasonable. Sure, you can buy a nice, high end custom knife for that money, but you'll be hard pressed to find someone who can make you a 1000+ year old piece of history.

Neat pic. But for some reason it looks an awful lot like an old scythe blade to me, is it just the lack of detail in the picture? I suppose it could have been sharpened quite a bit, but the taper to the tip still doesn't look quite right. Plus the tang seems too wide (compared to the other seax and swords I've seen), and the fullers look a bit unusual too, to my somewhat educated eye.

Maybe I just need some more coffee :), but if Jon or you others with more experience could direct me to pics of similar blades or even reassure me that you are confident that this is real, I'd be less suspicious. I guess I've seen too many fakes on ebay.

It does look rather like a scythe, but the tang looks too long for that application. Three pins would take a big heavey chunk of wood to use them all.

There's some similar seaxes in Du Chaillu's The Viking Age. It's a genuine blade shape, from the Migration Era / perhaps very early Viking age... there's a few from the Vimose find. As to whether it's a genuine piece as described in the auction, I have no idea.

Ooo. Pretty. I'd love to get more pictures of that. Too bad it's a little out of my price range right now. ;)

Jamie

The Tang and fullers, remind me of some ancient chinese stuff... very interesting piece.

I know some of the big auction houses and musiums have been fooled before, but you gotta take there word till proven otherwise. They must have some basis to draw there conclusion. A pic in a Sotheby cattaloge is pretty convincing.

I didn't read the ebay link this morning when I posted. I just did. Wow this is a really iteresting seax form, it's almost like a bill halbert, you know what I mean?