I have been asked to make a knife like a Huscarl would carry. I beleive they would have carried the sharp angled ones ( Brokeback ) vs. the rounded ones ( like the ones J. Loose prefers to make ) , correct?


Seth

I think that's a very difficult question to answer. At least it's difficult to answer without asking a lot of others.

Which period are you looking at? The hearthmen would have carried a seax from the 6th through to the 11th centuries, not that designs necessarily changed in that time of course.

Are you looking at what we would now call a small utility knife in the 3" to 6" range, something in the 6" to 12" ranger or a langseax of 12" to 24" (and upwards) blade? If the latter then I suspect the sharply angled back might be most appropriate.

If the smaller ones then I think you could very easily justify almost anything with a straight blade. There are examples in museums here of blades which wouldn't have looked out of place on a Sheffield Bowie, Wharncliffes, Lambsfoot blades and of course plenty with the "brokeback" blade pattern.

One or two of the more decorated blades found in the Thames have the sharply angled back so my inclination would be to go with that but only because it is so recogniseable as a seax.

Whatever you make, show it to us ;)

Now, let's see if Don Halter, J A Loose and Scott Jaqua and a few others can add something that makes more sense...

Roger

Roger, thanks much. Your post supports my thoughts on the matter.

Here are a couple I made a while back. Both blades are in the 12" range. The bone handle is cow shin bone ; )

http://www.sethhowardknives.com/h1/images/seax1_jpg.jpg

http://www.sethhowardknives.com/h1/seax2.jpg



Seth

Two beautiful examples Seth. Thanks for posting those. Thanks for making the Sheffield style Bowie/ Seax connection Roger. I thought I was all alone in my theory that Sheffield was influenced by the idea of a "big butcher knife" being the dreaded and much feared Seax.

The Housecarl is a late thing as far as the Viking Age is concerned, and the seax is an early thing as far as the Vikings are concerned, so... I'm going to say that a Housecarl would have carried a simple utility knife if at all as he would have had a very good sword, spear and possibly axe... and people to cook and do menial work for him.

http://www.regia.org/huscarl.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huscarl

I'm not sure of "brokenback," vs "wharncliff," spines are a progression or not. You see both together for most of the "seax," period...

Nice loking work Seth! The second knife looks like the type I'd have wanted if I'd been an 11th Century huscarl :)

Roc, that connection between the seax and Sheffield can't just be coincidence, can it?

I was using the term huscarl rather loosely to mean the hearthmen of a king or earl. That could mean the established military men of the Anglo-Danish kings of England or the Tinglith of earlier Anglo-Saxon times - I haven't considered the barbarians across the North Sea much here, have I? ;)

Whichever part of the period we look at, the seax wasn't a weapon of war, at least not in the hands of relatively wealthy warriors. Even the langseax was probably a big hunting knife to these men. Every man would have a sword, that being an object of great significance in the history of the peoples of North West Europe. Other than the sword, the axe or spear was the principal weapon of war.

But, no man could do without a utility knife. Wouldn't that be a seax? I'd say it would be, and easily anywhere in the 3" to 12" range, just because everybody is different... Now, of course I can't immediately find a reference in my very untidy library here to seaxes being carried in the 10th and 11th centuries though we do have them depicted on sword and axe-wielding men of the earlier Anglo-Saxon period.

Roger

A broke-back seax shaped preform will forge out to a very nice bowie shape once the edge is hammered in.... I suspect the two are close relatives.

A clip is a great way to deal with a broken point, also.

I was just thinking about making some Saexy little knives as trade goods around the local SCA group and was wondering if anyone had any sources about them being hung from the neck. I've got a couple drawings that I'd really like to make up but was wondering about the authenticity.

Thanks,

Joe