I make only a few knives a year, as a hobby, and only sold a dozen or so over the last several years. Actually, my projects are on hold due to recent birth of our first child.
Anyway, I feel it is time again to free a little space in my knife drawer and raise a bit of money for the future projects.
See detailed description and pics here:
www.geocities.com/aindman/small_seax.htm
I made this one with as much attention to detail as I could manage, especially in blade and scabbard (couldn't find much info on original handles). The biggest challenge was actually to gather information on historical finds and references to scabbard and handle construction, and Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions. These are few and far between, so I went through at least a dozen books and some web sites as well just to make sure there are no major historically incorrect features in this knife.
This is a second seax I made, much more historically correct then the first model. The blade is really on the thick side for such a short knife, but according to my sources such thickness was not at all unusual, but rather typical. It doesn't interfere with the cutting ability, considering that the blade is so wide and flat ground.
I'm pretty sure you have never seen anything quite like it, and will likely never see again (even if I make more seaxes in the future, they will be different, no fun in making same style all over again). I think it came out pretty nice and historically correct, but I personally don't have any practical use for it. I don't do any reenaction activities, and this is really a knife for a reenactor. I intentionally didn't give it a high polish (not rough either, more like satin finish) and allowed some patina to develop on the brass of sheath fittins, to make it look like a knife in dayly use could look in the period. The blade steel (5160) is not actually stainless (so it looks period and can be darkened intentionally or in use), but does have a little rast resistance (so it will not immediately rust like crazy if you forget to wipe it dry after use).
BTW, I sold the first Anglo-Saxon seax I made (a couple of years ago) to a reenactor. It was a less historically correct (though a little more flashy) version, but I got a feedback that it was well liked by the buyer's fellow reenactors.
I'm asking $145 for it, shipping included (US only).
Contact me at
aleksi@ilx.com with offers. Feel free to ask any questions as well.
Thank you.
Alex Indman.
12-09-2005, 08:46 AM
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