Zeb Deming.. a very talented smelter of iron.. smelted some steel from ore and then processed the bloomery product through a smaller furnace to clean up slag and add carbon. He then consolidated, combined with raw bloom and forged a beautiful seax which he then sent to me. I did some more forging to lengthen and narrow the blade and now I've started fitting it. The is a non-commissioned work and will be available upon completion. If an interested party wants aboard now.. and wants a say in the finished product.. then you better hurry! :-) Here are some pictures of the process.

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And here are some images that I'm using for inspiration. It will be a 'narrow langseax'.. Frankish. The grip will be wrap welded iron bolster, Ceylon ebony divided by fossilized walrus bone rings, and iron pommel.

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That is really impressive work on both of your parts. I am going to look forward to seeing the finished piece.

The start is truly remarkable I think we are all on our way to seeing living art come in to being

Wow..............I mean freakin' WOW! This is going to be spectacular! More pics!........McM

Very, very cool! Looking forward to seeing more of this one...

Thanks guys.

I got the heat treat done and it hardened up nicely. That is always a relief when dealing with traditional steel. AND.. my inlays didn't melt or pop out. Another relief. There are a couple of warps that will be worked out during temper.

Here is a picture showing the organic components coming together. Doing this has put me into a quandary. All of a sudden it is very compelling to use only the ebony and bone rather than iron.. perhaps some thin bronze spacers. But the purity of the black and white seems good to me... must think on it. Any opinions? The altnerative was to do iron bolster and pommel...

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by the way.. I haven't begun polishing the blade yet...:-)

Its looking really good Scott. your attention to detail is remarkable

I think that if your making a Saex for a jarl then it should have the statement of "I am rich, I am powerful and I will beat silly if you question my word",

This does all this but I would put the bronze spacers in as well as the ebony and bone,

Dave

Thanks David.. You do realize that this grip is practice for your project eh? :-)

This is coming out well. I think that an iron pommel and little "cross" similar to the one in the photo would be great with this seax. Bronze spacers could look cool, but I might think about thin leather (or wood?) spacers instead. It would offset the ivory and black look, but wouldn't compete with it. At least that's what I'd ask for if it were my seax...

firstly, with the few little pictures of your shop, it looks more like a Scott Roush piece is 'birthed' from your shop not made in it. :lol: everything looks like it has that gritty Roush look.

I'm always a great fan of inlay work, having done it myself a few times seeing it always gets my appreciation. inlay adds color to what almost looks like a base. especially adding copper inlay, the contrast of sometimes bright steel or even patina steel, then you get this brilliant pink that only copper flashes around - i think its more eye catching than silver or gold or even bronzes/brass for that matter. those metals seem to hid or blend with the natural luster of steel (if you go for a big polish on them)


just another piece I'm gonna enjoy watch come together.

Thanks guys.. I appreciate the feedback.

Daniel.. Funny you bring that up. My shop is rustic in some ways and at the edge of technology in others. My own aesthetic likes the rustic side more. However.. I've recently decided that I need a 'clean room' for for finishing, light engraving and leather work.. so I'm furnishing a new space that I'm very excited about. Very Japanese in it's simplicity and emptiness.. and 'missionary' with it's white walls and wood trim. It will be nice to have this away from the chaos of grinding and forging.

Haven't done much more.. But I do have one side of the blade sanded to 1000 grit. It has a very tamagahane-like hada and very clean stuff in terms of slag:

It has not been etched yet... this is the natural character of this steel.

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Interesting! I like it alot. Would love to see a full length shot though...

That's very attractive steel Scott.

For what it's worth I wouldn't etch it.

Thanks guys.

Well things have changed a little bit since this project has now been taken up as a commission. I will now be using more of the native Upper Peninsula raw copper as an ongoing theme. i.e. spacer/bolster, 'ellefen head' inlay and a small tri-lobed pommel. The customer also wants a light etch to see the bloomery steel hada and to contrast with the copper.

Here is the native copper. This stuff comes directly from the mines and still has rock and other minerals attached to it. For this project I'm just cutting off bits and cold forging them to shape:

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Flattening the bone spacers on my disk grinder:

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The 'ellefen head' inlay and a bind rune that I'm using as a mark.

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The blade with a light etch and the first part of the grip coming together. The 'engraving' in the wood is taken from some Frankish casting and is back filled with bone char made from the bone itself.

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Wow, this is coming together very, very nicely. I suspect the results will be epic, and the customer will be greatly envied.

I cannot wait to see the finished product! :D

Sorry for the lapse on this but I had to get back into some commissioned pieces with deadlines. Updates soon!

Also... I just had a write up by Elias Sideris in his 'Edge of Will' blog related to this project. If you are unfamiliar with his blog.. Elias is an upcoming maker and silver tongued devil:

http://edgeofwill.blogspot.com/2013/08/inspir...h-zeb.html