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Scott Kowalski
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 Posted: Wed 23 Feb, 2011 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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You are correct Owen and it is because of yourself and the other makers who do establish a rapport with the various museum curators that we the non-makers get to see some of these pieces for which I for one would like to thank you and the others who do this.
Enough of me hijacking the thread though. I do believe that it is about a seax?
I am looking forwards to seeing the finished project.
Chris Landwehr 10/10/49-1/1/09 My Mom
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Owen Bush
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 23 Feb, 2011 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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one of the enigmatic and legendary elements of patternwelding is the serpent in the steel and i have tried a few variations on this theme.
I am going to go for an element on this in this piece.
some kind of serpent or worm .....
this was my first attempt a gently undulating snake up the middle of a seax in 2006
I have tried various twisting serpents but never been happy with the results.
the wolfs tooth patterns I did recently can look serpentine and undulating
those patterns are a little too subtle and more like waves than snakes.
last year I had another go at this pattern and came up with this version of a snake , based on my memories of a pattern I saw in the british museum . This is the end of a monsterous seax (heptisax handled by Petr Florianek) and it would be hard to be more snakey than this. I am very proud of that seax . It is however imperfect in its manufacture havein some cold shuts between some coils....
However making it prompted me to re visit the sword in the BM that inspired all this snakey ness it is an amazing piece of rusty old metal.
on closer inspection you can see the undulating coils , not to mention the amazing spagetty twists in the edge pattern pieces that you can see right through!!
this is without doubt in my mind the serpent in the steel , conveluted ,writhing and undulating ...even menacing . I have done a few prictice pieces since heptisax and am hoping to get a better and more subtle result in this piece .
slightly less bling ...a little darker!!
A serpent in the steel of a seax!!!
forging soul into steel .
www.owenbush.co.uk the home of bushfire forge school of smithing .
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R D Moore
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| Posted: Wed 23 Feb, 2011 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeremy V. Krause wrote: | | To what era is this seax dated? |
This typology posted by Jeroen Zuiderwijk contains a similar langsax (#68 at the top) so it could be from the around the 8th century and of Frankish design. Just my thoughts on this and I'm certainly no expert, but I understand the langsax evolved into shorter blades after around the 9th century.
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"No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation" ...Gen. Douglas Macarthur
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Scott Kowalski
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| Posted: Wed 23 Feb, 2011 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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Those are beautiful examples of your patternwelding Owen. I cannot wait to see how the serpent ends up looking on this project. That is also a very interesting pair of pictures of the sword from the BM. In the second picture you can see how someone could say there was a serpent in the blade. Thank you for posting them.
Chris Landwehr 10/10/49-1/1/09 My Mom
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Matt Corbin
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| Posted: Sat 08 Oct, 2011 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Owen and Tod,
Have you guys made any progress on this project?
Not trying to to be a bother, just really want to see this completed 
“This was the age of heroes, some legendary, some historical . . . the misty borderland of history where fact and legend mingle.”
- R. Ewart Oakeshott
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Richard Furrer
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Mon 10 Oct, 2011 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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Owen,
Wonderful photos and I look forward to seeing the project unfold, er..rather, progress...unfolding the snake would be bad I assume...yes?
Ric
Ric Furrer
Sturgeon Bay, WI
www.doorcountyforgeworks.com
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This is a standard topic