Hi All,

I recently finished this langseax, scabbard and belt harness. Firstly I would like to thank Matthew Bunker and Jeroen Zuderwijk for scabbard advice. Their help was very welcome, but I would of course like to say that any mistakes are entirely my own.

The langseax blade is by Paul Binns and has a piled edge, two core twist and wrought iron back and is about 24" long. The pommel and guard are in bronze and based on the Northolt seax and the handle is in boxwood, horn and bone.

The scabbard is in vegtan and fitted with bronze plates and buckles. The bronze work throughout is oxidised rather than bright.

There are only a couple of images of langseax being worn and the method of suspension is not at all clear. It seems that the scabbards have this distinctive stepped outline and were worn at an angle similar to medeival swords and are likely to have been suspended from a waist belt. The harness I created is therefore one of conjecture however it holds the seax very securely and stabley.

I hope you like it.
Tod

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Tod,

Your work is ridiculously stunning once again. I don't think I've seen anyone use multiple materials for a Saex handle before, but the effect is incredibly cool. I paricularly love exquisitely intricate detailing of the bronze buckles and harness fittings. The punch and rivet decoration on the scabbard plates gives me a kind of 'tactile' authentic feel to the piece. Congratulations once again!

Christian Borglum

Amazing work, Tod! When I get the funds I will have MANY projects for you!

-Reece

WOW. That's great looking. The world needs more langsaxes. Lots more

Very nice. I particularly like the sheath. Where do you get bronze sheet? Did you manufacture the buckles and fittings yourself? I would love to hear more construction details. I myself have been having difficulties with similar projects and could benefit from your experience.

This is great Tod,

The work on the sheath and suspension is especially nice.

I'm having difficulty absorbing the sheer amazingness of this assembly. It's something I could stare at for an hour,and still be in a state of disbelief. I've never seen materials blended together in shape,color ,and dimension more artistically than this. A true masterpiece ,sir.

Very nice work Leo, looks like the same pommel as the one you made for Alex from our group, I really like the scabbard too, they work real nice together.

Christian, If you do a little digging around both on here and elsewhere, you will find there is a plethora of Seaxes with composite grips of mixed materials, for you to immerse yourself in. I myself am a big fan of Seax grips like this.

Scott, If you are in the UK, try AALCO they stock Bronze, Brass, Copper and just about anything else, in Tube, Bar stock, (round, flat, hex etc.) plus of course sheet, I buy sheet brass from them.

all the best,

Bruce

Many thanks guys for the response.

I also think the world needs more Langseaxs - This is the first I have made, though I have been itching to make one for quite a while, so I will definitely revisit these, probably with a nicely complex blade.

Although I love Christians' sentiment that I am a trend setter in the area of mixed material grips, Bruce is right in that many makers set work out in a similar way.

Bronze is a tricky material (at least here in the UK) in that I find that sheet, plate and round in small amounts, is often tricky to get in exactly the same grades and so there can be slight colour differences between component parts; though this is rarely particularly noticeable and is in fact also true of brass.

Many thanks

Tod

Wow! What a great looking seax, and the sheath is stunning!
We got a new longseax recently and I've been agonizing over how to sheath it, as the biggest knife sheath mentioned in Esther Cameron's book is no more than 10 inches long. What was your inspiration for this one? I appreciate finds are very thin on the ground, and this one looks so "right".

Scott Woodruff wrote

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Very nice. I particularly like the sheath. Where do you get bronze sheet? Did you manufacture the buckles and fittings yourself?

Yes all metalwork bar the blade is by me. The belt buckle is from the 'Viking set' shown here http://www.todsstuff.co.uk/todsfoundry/scabbard-fittings.htm .The scabbard buckles are also from Tods Foundry, but not yet on the site.

Construction is to simply fold the leather over and fit the plates either side that are preworked and rivet the plates on. Once the structural work is done I decorate the leather.

Aed Thompson wrote

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What was your inspiration for this one? I appreciate finds are very thin on the ground, and this one looks so "right".

Thanks Aed!

I must confess I had no information to work from at all, but I nagged Jeroen and Matthew who were very responsive (thanks guys) and was put on to the Stuttgart Psalter and this seax scabbard and as far as they are concerned this is pretty much all the pictorial evidence we have (as I understand it)[/url]

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You're welcome Tod (I'll come and see you at TORM and you can give me a manly hug).

Lovely work as ever, I think the hilt is particularly gorgeous.

The only thing that I do different is to follow the Psalter and extend the leather up over the handle, but obviously that doesn't work with one like this where you have a lower guard.

As one who has bought from Leo over the years and has a saxe sheath from him, I have to say this is one of his best that I've seen! Great work, you earned a big pint (or several) for that one! :-)

ALL of it is Very good to my eye, Paul Binns blade included. That said the unusual bone horn bronze & wood hilt with details is superb. Well done Tod.

Absoutely beautiful work, Tod. Great job on this one, my friend! :)