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Jeremy V. Krause
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Posts: 1,717 Location: Buffalo, NY.
Fri 09 Apr, 2010 2:24 pm
Construction of smaller knives and/or seaxes (800-1100)
Hi Everybody,

I am interested in the various blade compositions of smaller non-weapon, or weapon of last resort knives and seaxes (say 4-6in.) of the period 800-1100 CE.

Were these smaller blades composed of iron blades and higher carbon edges? Was pattern welding sometime employed and did this tend to happen in the earlier periods?

Did mono-steel blades begin to appear in these smaller blades in the 12th century as was happening with swords?

Any help would be appreciated as I want to begin to start thinking about some smaller knife or seax reproductions with more historical construction.

Thanks!
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Jeroen Zuiderwijk
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Posts: 740 Location: Netherlands
Sat 10 Apr, 2010 1:17 am
Re: Construction of smaller knives and/or seaxes (800-1100)
Jeremy V. Krause wrote:
Hi Everybody,

I am interested in the various blade compositions of smaller non-weapon, or weapon of last resort knives and seaxes (say 4-6in.) of the period 800-1100 CE.

Were these smaller blades composed of iron blades and higher carbon edges?

There are a lot of different possible constructions that were used, all iron, all steel, butt welded steel to iron, sandwhich, piled etc.

Quote:
Was pattern welding sometime employed and did this tend to happen in the earlier periods?

Outside of broken back style saxes, I'm not aware of examples of patternwelded knives (except one). Patternwelding seems to be reserved for weapons only. Patternwelding shows up in saxes for the first time in the 8th century, in long saxes. Later you also see smaller broken back saxes being patternwelded frequently.

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Did mono-steel blades begin to appear in these smaller blades in the 12th century as was happening with swords?

Monosteel knives are not very common AFAIK. During the late medieval period, most knives were still only part steel, or even entirely iron (cheap ones, not made by renowned gildes). In the 12th century you see some small knives with patternwelding b.t.w.
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