Some more details - when I forged the blade initially, everything looked good, although there was a slight warp in the blade. I reheated it and squashed it between the anvil and a large straight bar. That straightened the blade, but the hole appeared. The instructor speculated that some flux got included in the blade, and on the reheat that pocket of flux "exploded" causing the crater. It's a very deep divot that goes almost all the way through. The ring around the hole is a raised edge around the crater.
I think I'll probably go with cutting off the end and making a shorter broken-back seax.
-Jeff
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