Finally finished a seax i've been working on for awhile.

22.5" overall
14.5" blade
1/4" thick at base of blade

forged steel ("Aldo's" 1084) blade with visible quench line(s)
Mahogany handle
Water Buffalo bolster & end-cap
Copper inlay in blade & fittings
Copper pins in end-cap

Blade & handle were hand-rubbed up to 2000 grit. Blade was then *very lightly* etched and rubbed to bring out the quench line.

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This is the first time i've attempted inlay in either steel or horn, and i'm relatively happy with how it came out. There are a few noticeable flaws in the blade inlay, where i put a few deep scratches into the blade along the inlay channel, but I feel confident in my abilities to minimize this sort of thing in my next attempt.

Concerning the blade shape: I'm quite happy with the base-to-broken-back "reverse" taper (which is lacking in many repro ductions i'v seen). Furthermore, I'm happy that I was able to avoid the point droop (which results in a tiny amount of recurve) i see in a lot of reproduction oil-quenched seax, but have never seen in any historical examples. However, next time I attempt to reproduce this style of seax, I'd like to include a more distinct curved belly, as seen in most historical pieces of this type.

Although broken back seax with such exaggerated taper to the point are not the norm, there are extant examples:
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Thanks,
Dustin

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a lighter for scale

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Historical or not -- I LIKE it! Good job!

Dustin,

That is VERY nicely done!! Thanks for sharing.

I rather like it as well.

That's an interesting take on the handle design. This is always tricky because history has left us so little to work on. It's hard to know what direction to go.

Nice. I have some of that steel from Aldo. Been trying to think of what I should make. Now I have some good ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comments.

Jeremy V. Krause wrote:

That's an interesting take on the handle design. This is always tricky because history has left us so little to work on. It's hard to know what direction to go.

Yeah, I agonized over handle design for a bit, but then just decided to go foremost for something ergonomically useful from the point of view of using a mid-size seax like this as both a tool and a weapon. With this style of long, almost haft-like grip, you are able to choke way up on it and use it for whittling (shaving tinder, for example) or food prep tasks, grip it in the middle in a very comfortable ice-pick grip, or grip it near the back for a very secure, locked in grip for fast, yet strong slashing blows. Aesthetically, since, as you say, not much is left of broken-back seax hilts, I decided on something minimal, yet plausible (all organic fittings).

Matthew Stagmer wrote:

Nice. I have some of that steel from Aldo.

It's good stuff. It's not quite as active as something like the W's or 1095, but you can still get some nice hamon activity out of it if you are into that sort of thing. My advice is to austentize on the lower side rather than the higher (around 1480 - 1490F ) if you are going for any sort of hamon-like activity. Tempering at 420F has given me the best edge stability with this steel for knife-length blades.

I was a little worried about using this steel for even larger blades, but after reading a bit more about it and then actually making and testing/abusing a big 34" 'maciejowski chopper' (pics posted soon, if i can ever finish the handle), I'm convinced this steel is suitable for sword length blades as well.

Thanks for looking,
Dustin

Incredible work, I really like it.

This is the exact seax that I plan to make a replica of when I go on a blade smithing course.
I really want to play with some inlay too, but have not yet decided on a design yet.
Also the handle is very nice, I am impressed. :)