Those that know me know I collect old blades. I have roughly 35 blades ranging from Roman times up through the 16th century. My goal is to reproduce each and every one. This particular blade is made based on one in my collection. Unfortunately I do not know the age of this one, however it came from the same region as several of my older seax blades. As such, I decided to use wrought iron over high carbon steel for the blade, wrought iron for a small bolster/gaurd and antler for the handle. I used axis stag since it is almost solid all the way through. It has an excellent color to it as well. The wrought I used is one of the most actively figured iron I have ever used. The picture does not do it justice. The original piece was a bit shorter at slightly over 4" blade, while this one is almost a 5" blade. It has a great feel as the blade is almost 1/4" thick at the spine, as is the original. I'll scan in a few originals tomorrow.

I really like the way this one looks and feels, but the little gaurd seems to scream something other than what I wanted. I was going to go with copper, but that just seemed to look bad on this one. Don't get me wrong, I really love the look of the gaurd with the other materials, I just don't know that it yells "Dude, you're medieval" to me. I have lots more similar ones I want to do. What would y'all suggest? ....just antler rounded in front as well as back, ivory done the same, hourglass shape to antler...?

P.S. This one's up for auction for the Shane Ivie auction.

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/krag/shane1.jpg

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/krag/shane2.jpg

Let me be the first to say,WOW! I think you did a great job:bow

Wow! Very cool! I struggled with guard choices for a nearly done, not nearly as cool blade I'm working on. I ended up leaving it off completely. I really like the look of yours!

Huzzah!
Jeff

That's a great looking knife :101 Very nice wrought, too.
I don't remember ever seeing a medaeival knife with a guard of that sort, maybe that's why it's not yelling "Dude, you're medieval" - maybe go for a ferrule next one? Skipping the metal entirely is a good fall back, but that would be less fun to make.

I was thinking along the lines of a casting a silver ferrule and then fileworking it a bit. I've done a few without anything...but like you said, they just aren't as fun! :)

Here's a few originals. My version rolled over a bit in the scanner so it looks kinda skinny in this picture, but most of the dimentions are the same. Mine sweeps up at the tip about 3/16" higher than the original.

The others are just some neat little ones I have. The bottom one has a double fuller along the spine on the right side. The broken-back seax shaped one is about 2 1/4" long. None of these have undergone electrolysis and preservation yet.

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/krag/repro.jpg

That is a special one. Who ever wins it will be getting a gem. This one goes on my list of all time favorite Knet bro pieces.:bow

Very nice ! Can you tell us what the iron was before it went into the blade? What source?
Were diffrent grades of wrought used for diffrent specific applications?

Ive heard that wrought iron anchor chains off of the big ships is good, but havnt tried it yet.
Anyone have any suggestions?

God Bless
Mike