In 1604 the Danish/Norwegian King Christian IV issued a law which dictated that all Norwegian men had to arm themselves to serve in a peasant militia in case of attack from (primarily) Sweden on Norwegian soil.
They had the choice of buying a Tessak cheaply from the Crown. Many did, but some chose to go "old school" and armed themselves with battle axes!
These were not viking age "Dane Axes", but a further development with curved handles for slicing cuts. Born were the "Norwegian Battle Axe" or in Norwegian "Bondeøkse/Bondeøks" (= Peasant axe), that was in use even up to 1800.
[in fact they already had this type in use already from the 1500's, but the law massively enlarged production]

These Battleaxes comes in three types (A;B;C) as can be seen on this site:
Source: http://norskevaapen.no/?p=1785

More pictures here:
http://www.maihaugen.no/no/info/kunnskap/saml...apenokser/

Digitaltmuseum (Norway) have a lot of good pictures of these axes:
Source: http://digitaltmuseum.no/search?query=bonde%C3%B8ks

So to show a 1500's example [the axe, not the Norwegian :lol:] - with an axe head still in the viking style.
[ Linked Image ]
Source: http://g.api.no/obscura/API/image/r1/escenic/...56958a.jpg

Niels, thank you for sharing this! I've seen a photo or two of this axe type, attributed actually to the Viking era, and thought it suspicious that the wood hafts looked so perfect for a Viking-age artifact. Now it all makes sense.

Any ideas on how they got the curvature of the hafts? Steamed, carved, or did they hunt for the perfect branch?

Finally, the location of that last photo looks like trouble brewing - Norwegian with battle axe in front of a Swedish parstuga? It's a beautiful house.

Cheers,
Eric

So, is this axe also from that period (1600+)? Picture from hurstwick webpage.

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Hi Niels. A few questions if you don't mind. Could you tell me how long were the hafts on these peasant axes? Were they a one-handed or a two-handed weapon? Do we have any treatise or description of how they were used? Thanks in advance.

Jason

Thanks very much Niels.

Jason

As a Norwegian I approve of these :-) These axes were always a status symbol when not used in war. Very many of them are lavishly decorated, often with finely tooled silver. Lenght is as stated about 1-ish meter. They were used as walking sticks for Sunday displays so thats about the length.
Note that the tip of the axe is almost always perpendicular with the shaft, forming a hefty spear point for stabbing. The axe heads are also surprisingly thin making this a very agile and fast weapon and not a brutish cleaver.

The angle of the shaft was probably done in many ways, but traditionally it should be from rowan. Root shots of some hard woods like ash and rowan grows at a perfect initial angle from the old root. I have made a few rowan replicas with shafts cut straight from the forest, no adjustment of angle required.