That is quite honestly one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever seen! Good work!

May this incredible creation inspire awe in it artistry centuries from now!

Lovely work Bruce, a joy to behold. You have put a lot of yourself in to the work and it shows.

On a serious note, you will have to lay on top of it when you are sleeping on the wic, there will be a load of us lined up to fondle it when you are not looking ;)

That is stunning work Bruce!

I can't believe you picked something this difficult for a first attempt at Cloisonne. Or that it turned out as nice as it did. :eek:

Hello!
Nice work! staff hoard really did remake the image of the period and this sax is great homage
is that real cloissonne with garnets? Looks more like emailed to me from pictures

Treasure! :surprised:

Hi all,
Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of the original scabbard so you can see where I drew my inspiration for this.

The 2nd pic is of the Bjärs 27 seax hilt, which like Bjärs 17 has similar shaped fittings to the Staffs Hoard ones.

So although the Staffs hoard ones are obviously more ornate, I thought they would 'marry' together quite well.

The 3rd and 4th pics are of the Bjärs 17 scabbard plates. I have always coveted this particular scabbard, as in my opinion its one of the most aesthetically pleasing of the Vendel period Swedish scabbards.

As it happened, the blade I had bought from Thorkil, which was not a commission I just bought it 'as is', happened to be about exactly the same length as the Bjärs 17 blade, which I was ecstatic about.

Looking at the pic of the of the original Staffs Hoard lower hilt collar, (1st pic), It has a single edged, blade shaped slot, Which whilst appearing wider at the spine, I thought was suitable for my slightly slimmer Thorkil blade. I guestimated that the original blade fitting into this slot would have been a similar length and shape to mine. Even thought this slot quite clearly shows the blade profile, there is no clue as to the blade length, However, In my opinion these fittings were not so richly decorated just for a short eating knife, but rather a longer weapon., Given the wealth of other richly decorated filigree or garnet pommels and obvious sword components, I don't think this is a big leap of faith.

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I'm looking forward to Jorvik even more now just to see this peice. I'd like to compliment you on your craft, Bruce, but jealousy is choking me to the extent that I just can't bring myself to do it :)

Hi Guys,
I've just realised the last 4 pics are not in the order I thought they were going to be in, anyway, from the descriptions its kind of obvious which one is which, Cheers,
Bruce

Oh and Hi Ian,
Welcome to the board, I'm flattered that you came on just to make a comment on my new Seax.
I hope you take the time to look around the forums and previous threads which have been informative, enlightening and sometimes entertaining. I'll warn you though,it does get addictive. Sithee in York.

Another thing I forgot to mention for those interested, the blade is well balanced by the hilt fittings, however this does not necessarily reflect the feel of the original, given that A; as I mentioned previously, there is no original blade found with the hilt with which to make a comparison and B; my replicas are made from solid bronze, the originals are gold, but hollow, I don't know what the wall thickness's are. On the collars, it looks (from the pictures I've seen) and seeing them in the flesh, that the wall thickness is about 3-4mm. Until someone corrects me.

Given that gold is heavier than bronze, perhaps pound for pound mine are not too far off the weight of the originals.(perhaps) That is just a guess of course.

Anyway the seax handles well, it seems quite light and changes direction with ease. It doesn't seem to have a lot of 'chopping' impetus, But seriously, this blade is so sharp and wieldy you could do the mark of Zorro on your enemy and they'd be on the floor dead, before they realised you'd even drawn it from the scabbard!
I'll put up some dimensions next. When I get home.

Bruce

hi Bruce, I'm trawling through a bit at a time. There's so much!

I really appreciate the efforts on the garnet cloisonne. It looks great.. well done. Is it actual garnet with foil underneath? (I can understand why you might not have gone to that level of effort.. but am always interested in those who are going to this level of recreation in MIgration era work.)

Thanks very much for sharing this work!

Hi Jared, and others that were wondering,
No it is not Garnet with foils, I only wish I had the time, patience and finances to do everything using traditional materials and methods. I have made a faux garnet.

The thing I am most pleased about is that its appears to look like real garnet, which is exactly what I intended, not for deception but just to give a passable facsimile of Garnet.
I would prefer not to go into minute detail about the methods I have used. Not wishing to be unhelpful, as I am all for the sharing of knowledge on our chosen passion, but I have been helped out by friends whose very livelihood depends on a modicum of secrecy regarding their methods. If this were not the case I would be happy to divulge my 'trade secrets' so to speak. I hope you understand. But just to put these period replicas been made authentically into some kind of perspective. A TV documentary in the UK took the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasps (Gold, Garnet, Filigree, Milifiori) into a very high class jewellers in London to appraise them and enquire as to the cost of making a modern pair indentical to the originals. The figure they were quoted was, if I remember correctly, £200,000. So that puts the dampeners on our hobby (for certain in my chosen period of interest). I made the Seax for me and I'm happy to walk around wearing it. But I still explain to members of the public how the originals were made.I know its a compromise but I think this drives home the AWESOMENESS of the original artisans, working with what they had. In fact it still amazes me.
Cheers,
Bruce

Utterly stunning, especially given that you did the fittings yourself. We've got afew Staffs Hoard replicas accumulating, and my dad's proud of the fact he's assembled them himself, but when it comes to the gold and "garnet" work we've relied on jeweller George Easton of Danegeld. Couldn't believe my eyes to see something of that quality done by someone who's not a jeweller. (nb. we dont have real garnets either)