G'day

I consider myself an amateur collector, brought into this past-time through obsession with history. My first purchase has been a Roman Helm through Albion.

However, I have found my knowledge of history somewhat lacking in deciding my next purchase. I want to get a mate a Viking seax for his 21st. My intention is to engrave his name in runes on the blade. His ancestry is Orkney Islander. While I have studied the Vikings at university level, I am completely unaware as to what would be a suitable Viking-era seax.

I want to get a nice-looking (ideally with some identifiably Viking features) seax, historically accurate, with sheath and of good quality for under USD100. Most importantly it must be applicable to the Orkney Islands.

My current market research has led my to the Windlass seax (http://albion-swords.com/daggers/seax.htm) which looks acceptable. Another friend tells me it is more Roman than Viking, however. I have also looked at Albion's model at http://albion-swords.com/daggers/seax.htm . I am fascinated by the 'in redesign' label - could anyone speculate as to the time-frame and cost of the next variant of Albion's model?

I have till July to get the seax, so time is not yet an issue. Having previously dealt with Albion I completely trust in their quality, workmanship and service - if they had a suitable product, I would buy it without hesitation. Other sites I am not so sure about (I would have already ordered the Albion Viking squire line, albeit it IS slightly too expensive).

Any and all help is much appreciated.
Cheers,
Chris

At a price point of $100 US, you'll have to make several concessions. You'll likely be unable to get all of your criteria met at that price: nice-looking, Viking features, historically accurate, good quality, with sheath.

This Topic might be a good place to look for some information and could have some leads as to sources for reproduction seaxes. If not, I'm sure somebody will chime in with some advice on available reproductions at various price points soon enough.

As a sidenote, a friend was recently quoted over $500 US for a custom-made historically-accurate sheath for his seax. And that doesn't include the seax.

Cheers

For under $100 US, the pickings are slim. There's the MRL "Viking Seax" and the CASI/Hanwei "Viking Scramasax", neither of which is really accurate but are affordable, running about $80 or so.
Viking Shield (http://www.viking-shield.com/), in addition to selling both the MRL and Hanwei saxes, also sells a nice-looking Viking Sax made by Scott Byler. It's sure to be of better quality than either of the other two saxes, but at $105 is just a little over your limit (by a whole $5.00!). But it might be worth spending the extra money.

For a little more, Lutel (http://www.lutel.cz/index2e.htm) has two very nice Scramasaxes that run in the mid-$100 range. Check under "knives". I have the 11009, with the stag handle. Very nice piece which includes a very nice scabbard and belt.
Del Tin of Italy (http://www.deltin.it/home.htm) has what they call a "Lombard Scramasax" which they date to the 6th century. So, probably a little earlier and of a more southerly culture, but still a nice sax (http://www.deltin.it/2060hi.jpg)

Anyway, those are just a few options....

Arms and Armor Manufacture (A&AM) of the Czech Republic offers this seax for approximately $150.00 (depending on the current exchange rate),

http://www.arms-armor.cz/index.php?catalog=tr...mp;cath=DA


I own one of A&AM's viking axes - excellent piece! I'm very happy with it - very solid, very sturdy (of the five viking axes I own, I believe it to be the finest). But, I am not knowledgeable enough the specific proveniences of seaxes to be able to guess at how appropriate this one is for the period and locale you are seeking.

Good luck! Let us know what you finally decide to go with! :)
Jesse

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Many thanks for your help, everyone. It is much appreciated.

Somewhat sadly, I am starting to agree with David and Nathan and accept that I may be far too frugal in my budgeting.

As I have till July I am going to think this one through properly. However, everyone's options have given reason for me to consider. I'm mainly looking at Arms and Armour and viking-shield (Scott's seax). I'm starting to wonder if I should chase up some of our mutual friends and see if they want to split the purchase, thus increasing my budget dramatically.

I'll let you know how I get on. Until then, thank you for your assistance.
C

Historically accurate, runic engravings.....under $100. I think you'll definitely need to scale down the project, or scale up the budget. For what you listed and assuming about a 12-15" blade length, I'd start at about $175, pending a few things. I tend to be on the low end of pricing for custom blades, as this is a hobby. I have a few I'm finishing up right now, and several planned for this Spring...but ivory, custom mixed bronzes and such will put them in the $175+ range as well.

here's a few i've done and actually taken pics of: http://www.100megsfree3.com/kragaxe/as/saex/Saex.html