This seax blade is made from ore from various smelts that have been held at my forge. and from phosphoric iron smelted by lee sauder. It is my first attempt at making a "saxon " blade from smelted material . I have made 2 "japanese" blades before this but they were just strait laminate (clay coated) .
It is not perfect.... but gives a good idea of what these blades may have looked like , or at least a grasp in that direction.
its a 5 bar blade
at the back tamahagane zuku wootzu ( remelted in a crucible bloomery cast iron and grumps of steel ) folded forever and then mixed in with low C bloomery iron .
2 oposing twists from phosphoric iron and low c bloomery iron then a fine layer spacer in high c and low c strips and the edge of same .
the blade hardened well....
It is subtle , I will try a different mix to get more "show" in the twists ...

this bladewas hard work , but it is a start.
Many thanks to all the people who helped to make the steel at various smelts .... Mike Blue ( who got us going on all this smelting malarchy) , Mick Maxen (who had a hand in most of this material), Jack Hobson , Colin , Jake Powning , Niko , Jeff pringle , Rowan Lee sauder and more besides ........
This one will be a keeper...there is too much work in it to sell......
I shall be doing more.....
the blade at 7 inches and 8mm thick at the hump...
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and close up
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as always your comments are apreciated.

Nicely done! I look forward to seeing the next attempts.

In one word: Fantastic!

There's so much going on there... You could look at it for days.

There are no words Owen. I love it.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

A special piece.

Please don't leave this with the others on the living room table; fit it up, it is too good to leave unfinished.

Tod

That's a VERY nice blade :D I like the subtlety of the pattern. Most of the modern pattern welding I see is just so glaringly obvious. I think historical blades would have looked a lot more like this. Almost looks like monosteel until you get close and really see the intricacy of what has been done.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it completed at some point.

WOW Owen!

That's really something! I love it.

What century seax are you going for here. It looks like a later example- maybe 10th. C. or beginning of 11th.

I could be WAY off- just guessing!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

A special piece.

Please don't leave this with the others on the living room table; fit it up, it is too good to leave unfinished.

Tod

Fantastic work, Owen! I will second what Leo said - this deserves to get a fittings and scabbard worthy the blade!

Fantastic work. Having done many smelts here over the last 4 years, I have had the same idea of mixing all of the bloom steel in such a blade. I love how organic your results are. Definitely a keeper!

This is really special. The quality of the metal is just amazing. I don't know exactly what goes into making a blade like this but can sure appreciate the result! In a word- GREAT!

Very Muchly Cool :)