myArmoury.com - New brokeback sax with german bird head handle

Posts: 919

Sun 18 May, 2008 4:35 am

New brokeback sax with german bird head handle

I was able to finish this sax along with my associate Michèl Cattaneo.

The blade is of classic broke back design, while the handle is derived from one in a german museum.

I think the handle reproduction goes very close to the original (pic provided by J. Zuiderwik)

Blade has a slight distal taper , it was made in a medieval forge with a modern power hammer (medieval walls help steel develop a better grain).

Blade length 44cms, thickness at base 6.9 mms tapering to5.3 at the beginning of the spine bend.

High definition pics here

http://bghomofaber.googlepages.com/saxfordukewarin2

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Russ Ellis

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Posts: 2,608

Sun 18 May, 2008 8:47 pm

Thanks for sharing, it's my favorite type of seax! I'm not completely in love handle preferring something a little plainer I guess, but it's an outstanding effort, keep up the good work!

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Kelly Powell

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Posts: 123 Location: lawrence, kansas

Mon 19 May, 2008 12:22 am

Do you have a picture of the blade before you put the handle on? I'm making a saex from a chainsaw bar and had to make the tang go at an angle to miss the wheel....I inadevertently made a brokeback saex!I just wanted to see what angle your tang was....Question: if your's has a angled tang, did it present a problem when you fitted a handle to it? did you have to make the hole off center?
I am going to make a temporary handle to get me through event season....I'll most likely use leather and brass disk have a piece of flat brass for a pommel....will I need a tang protector for it? (isn't that the name for the small bit o'metal you have on the last bit of tang and next to the pommel?)
For my birthday I'm buying a chunk of mineralised walrus oosik(penis bone) ....I have heard they polish up to a beautiful moss on granite look.....I'll make a new topic so as not to hijack your thread.....thanks for any help you can give me.

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Bruno Giordan

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Posts: 919

Mon 19 May, 2008 12:56 am

Kelly Powell wrote:

Do you have a picture of the blade before you put the handle on? I'm making a saex from a chainsaw bar and had to make the tang go at an angle to miss the wheel....I inadevertently made a brokeback saex!I just wanted to see what angle your tang was....Question: if your's has a angled tang, did it present a problem when you fitted a handle to it? did you have to make the hole off center?
I am going to make a temporary handle to get me through event season....I'll most likely use leather and brass disk have a piece of flat brass for a pommel....will I need a tang protector for it? (isn't that the name for the small bit o'metal you have on the last bit of tang and next to the pommel?)
For my birthday I'm buying a chunk of mineralised walrus oosik(penis bone) ....I have heard they polish up to a beautiful moss on granite look.....I'll make a new topic so as not to hijack your thread.....thanks for any help you can give me.

For Russ Ellis

really happy for the compliments of a pro, thank you!

I followed an historical model so I went for the solar discs, even if hey were hard to make in the italian rovere (national oak) wood. Next time we will experiment with a different wood. We had made a steel tool to make them, as found in a publication about the langbardian solar disks that were impressed in lagbardian combs (substantially, viking stuff ..).

I wonder if I could make the next ones by burning them in with a heated iron tool

For Kelly

I used a straight tang, as in original, it is quite thick too (above 6 mms).

The handle is glued, as in originals: I used a modern glue for this task. Michel excavated the wood as a first step, then he copied the original design.

It is a bit rough if observed from a little distance.

As for the blade, Michel envisioned this finishing since we found, again in that appear about langbardian seaxes, that many specimen found here show signs of grinding on the blade body.

Grinding made with local polishing stones.

I have one of such stones, but we didn't dare finish the blade off with it as people would still not understand it, being quite crude, and we are not sure about the way they were finished, apart from the evident grinding marks that have appeared after chemical removal of rust.

Such seaxes still show some evidence of glued handles, but no hint of the shape.

In any case our reconstruction is for a brokeback type, while langbardians used a sort of bowie shape style, quite close to the frankish one.

Our inspiration attached down here

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G Ezell

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Posts: 235 Location: North Alabama

Tue 20 May, 2008 8:54 pm

I really like the finish on the blade, it does not in any way look machine applied... :cool:

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Paul Mortimer

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Posts: 285 Location: England, Essex

Wed 21 May, 2008 2:31 am

Lovely!!

Paul

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Bruno Giordan

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Posts: 919

Wed 21 May, 2008 3:11 am

G Ezell wrote:

I really like the finish on the blade, it does not in any way look machine applied... :cool:

Thank you, it is made by hand , as the blade & fuller.

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Lawrence Parramore

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Posts: 132

Wed 21 May, 2008 12:45 pm

Hi Bruno,

Nice! and attention to detail in going for an original finish, you could make patterns with that kind of finish with a little thought, I am thinking engine turning ( why is it called engine turning when it is done by hand?), but I have seen something like birds wings, feathers done with careful grinding, that kind of grinding is an art in itself and it would not surprise me if it was done then?

Hand finishing, great!

Lawrence

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Douglas S

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Posts: 177

Thu 22 May, 2008 2:47 pm

Solar discs = dot and circle?
Very common in period for a variety of materials. Good to see someone using that motif.

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Bruno Giordan

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Posts: 919

Thu 22 May, 2008 10:36 pm

Douglas S wrote:

Solar discs = dot and circle?
Very common in period for a variety of materials. Good to see someone using that motif.

they are very common on langbardian combs, combs are abundant finding. Seaxees are too but the bone or wood handles are invariably decayed

This plaques are preserved in Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia (Santa Giulia is a langbardian founded monastery)

http://bghomofaber.googlepages.com/soalr-discs-web.JPG

Typical langbardian seaxes would look like this

http://bghomofaber.googlepages.com/seaxes-web.JPG[/b]

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