The new sheath for Gládhustrók

 I figured one thing: A Viking bling sheath looks great. It´s even a comfortable carry around the camp or the fair. It keeps the blade securely in, it´s very sturdy and simply looks great. But there are distinct disadvantages. It´s a bit clumsy when dangling from your belt. If you have to move through the thicket, it gets stuck to branches and thorns, adds heft to movements to which you are not accustomed. In martial training it can compromise your movements. So it´s better to keep any weight close to your body, and any accelerated mass as little as possible. Since our ancestors were no complete idiots, I strongly suggest that those sheaths found in the burials were especially made for special representative occasions, such as one´s own burial, for instance;-). Vikings seem to have been quite the show-offs. But then they certainly could in the first place. But they were no tarts, either. Surviving in a world where you can´t simply buy fast food just over the street, where you had to work hard for your welfare means you need knowledge or you´d die. So it was well esteemed to be skilled, and someone who did not have enough skills was called "ósnotr madhr", "mind-challenged man" (I refer to the Eddic strophes in the Hávamál).

Men had to be skilled in martial arts, crafts and arts, knowledge and cunning. One was estimated far higher for cunning than mere fighting prowess, and it is a mistake to assume Vikings would storm a city if they could help it. Recently this prejudice was fed again in the media...:-/ (I refer to this TV production, whatsitcalled, you know, the one with the underwear model in a starring role and that Taekwondo gurrl with the steel boobies that can actually bend a round shield... or wait, was the shield maybe not made from wood, but hard foam?*ggg*...).

So one can safely assume, that, when working and hunting or even "raiding":-P, Viking men would not actually carry that much bling looking like a chrismas tree, but a more subdued attire.

I made a more simple sheath for actual working with this knife due to my experiences with a bling sheath, and I want to ask the question if Vikings actually wore them in battle or when working or if they used a more subdued and maybe more practical kit. I know that the custom in Norway even today is to have one finely made knife for special formal occasions and one for hard working in the woods. I will do some further research on the topic. Maybe I just messed up with my interpretation, and other people have different experiences, too.

Anyway, I made a simple sheath, with a "classical" belt loop. This fact posed another question: Since there is no archaeological evidence for a sturdy belt loop, I asked myself, why this was the case. The line of thinking around the advantages of a sturdy belt loop centers around the fact that this way a knife is easier to draw with one hand. It requires a sturdy base in a wide belt. All this adds up to a picture where a knife user sees an advantage in having
a) the possibility to draw the knife with one hand.
b) a firm and sturdy mounting on the belt
This leads to assuming that
a1) the user needs the other hand to work with
a2) the user needs the other hand to aid in different actions, maybe a defensive movement
b1) a fixature of the hips and lower back support or keeping the weight close to the body
b2) a sturdy base to draw fast.

The layout of a sturdy belt loop is especially popular with hunting knives, but also fighting knives, so much in fact that many modern sheaths are made from Kydex(TM). A flexible mounting, as with many Saami knives and most bushcraft knives, has the advantage to aid in some movements and when sitting down. That way the handle will not constantly poke into your ribs. It´s more comfortable.

My theory now goes towards a different reception of knives in general. For personal defence and attack people in the Viking age used an axe, a long seax, a spear and shield. Rare are the documents that actually hint of the use of a knife as a weapon. I can remember one saga, but have forgotten the title (I think it was in Grettir´s or Hrolf Kraki´s saga, but am not sure), where the protagonists are assaulted at a feast. It was customary to store the weapons at the clothing room, except for the table knives, which often were highly decorated. The assaulted guests in the saga had to defend themselves with their cutlery, and this was considered shameful.

Even if a sword is suspended from a belt chain, it can easily be drawn with one hand, and it even more so goes for polearms like axe or spear. A seax, however, is a different matter. It can be a bit of a bummer to get a seax carried at the back suspended from two flexible loops out fast and smoothly enough to draw and cut in one fluent motion, which is crucial for fighting.

So I think knives were seen as tools. They even had a  pseudo - ritualistic character, for they were by nature playing a pivotal role at the feast, which was considered as sacred. The receptions of an afterlife in the often ill-received Valhóll (Valhalla) being an eternal feast give testament to this. The handles of those knives found are often decorated with concentric circles (a most ancient ornament dating back to the Neolithic age), zoomorphic or anthropomorphic or simple knotwork ornaments, triangles and other geometric decoration, which one could easily interpret as having an apotropaeic function due to many consistent ethnographic comparisons. Even in the 20th century ethnological field research documented many customs in Finland involving a Puukko serving this function. This function, however, was not generated by the use as a weapon or the cutting ability, but by the material aspects of the artefact. It was iron itself, as the story in the Kalevala, the Finnish National epic poem indicates. Iron (Rauta) had a soul, and "väkirauta" was the "folk of iron" invocated in many forms of agricultural magic. In early Christian Germany, up to the 20th century, the knife fulfilled many aspects of a feasting ritual,  especially in giving thanks before the meal to God.

I personally think now, that it is safe to assume, that if the Vikings deemed the feast as such a kind of ritual service (compare giving thanks before the meal), that the richly decorated knives were carried at the feast to be used as a maybe not even structural, but essential tool. This is of course a commonplace, since the host did not provide for cutlery in that time, so you needed a knife to cut the meat and for eating in general. Quite certainly they were not seen as weapons, and it was seen as a last-ditch resolve, if not a shame to use a knife for defending oneself.

So back to the sheath. It´s a modern approach, then. To me it´s more practical (and not because I need it for fighting;-), whoever thinks a knife fight is romantic has never really thought about it and might want to get a good psychotherapist). I also have tried something new that Willi brought up and Nick inspired me to: I used to use water soaking for modelling and reinforcing, but have tried to do this with pure alcohol (Pure Ethanol, Spiritus). That way you don´t have to add layers of duct tape to the blade that gets thrown away afterwards, it dries far quicker and makes for a more controlled soak when modelling. Then I added three soaks of a mixture of spirit alcohol, beeswax and linseed oil before heat-waxing it to a firm and sturdy sheath that actually locks around the handle. I personaölly like it... 

The Rus replica and finding a story

 So, here it is, the almost finished knife with the carving completed.

I am now searching for the story and the name. It all started with me realizing that the blade also resembles the find of the famed "Amunta" knife. I thought, well, might it be that the knife inscribed with Amunta a mik (which is read today as "Amunta owns me") belonged to a skóggángr man? Skóggángr was a sentence of banning people from the community, often without weapons. I´ll do an article on this soon. Suffice to say, while there are reasons people were banned from the community in the Viking and Vendel age, nowadays it might as well be a honourable deed banning oneself from a society of lunatics. In that line the story and myth of this knife will happen.

When I rode home from the smithy last Sunday, when I had completed the handle, I presumeably did the silliest thing in my whole life: Riding over the lane by the river with a rucksack full of steel in the middle of a lightning tempest. I was sure I´d die there, and I asked the fates to make me understand. It was then lightning struck nearby, behind my back, and the St. Elmo´s fire went right through me. While it is not an experience I can recommend:-), it was a goosebumps experience, with the violent purple light running through my limbs and onto the lane  ravaged by the driving rainstorm in the dark... and the tempest pushed me with a backwind that literally smote me forward with some 35 km/h without me even pedalling. If you ask the Gods in a lightning storm, chance is, they will answer... it will always be a part of this knife´s story now... in this case it is a bit more complicated. It is not just a mere name, but I really want to find out about its true myth... it´s a bit of quoting a story that is already there but written in a language you cannot read... yet.

So watch this place...

Next step will be making a utility sheath and then one for bling;-D. 

On the bench-some progress

 I am a bit reluctant- might well be that you are getting fed up with those progress posts, but bhere they come. Sanded and filed the handles of the two Rus knives, and in the middle´s the Tai - Goo - style bush knife with a quick paracord wrap.

On the big ´un with the Kopis blade that will see a carving....

 

...like this, see? I daresay one can imagine how I had the idea...;-). Or any such like. Quite certainly it will be modified in the progress.

 

Anyway, I am talking in ellipses, what I want to say is, I fitted a buttcap out of homemade Mokume Gane. Silver and copper. 

 

 

I look forward to the knife. I peened the tang over with the tip submerged in a piece of hardwood, crosswise to the grain and levered it out, and it took it with no damage. It´s not THAT hard, but hard enough to carve mild steel rods and chop antler, so it´ll do fine for my woodwalking and re-enactment endeavours. I am taking this quite slow, because I want to find a story suited to it in the work process, and a name that fits. Watch this place, it´ll be not the last time you´ll read about it;-).

On the bench: Viking / Rus age replica blades work in progress-and the question of the Kopis edge line

Currently I am working on my first genuine replicas / museum artefact interpretations, and I am faced with some difficulties. First and foremostly, I am inspired very much by the Novgorod Viking age finds. The culprit is, there are some of the blades found in Novgorod showing a somewhat "recurve" blade line, as the Kopis style blade below. That blade you might know from another post. As you can see in the pattern, the blade is forged that way.
(picture courtesy of http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodMetalp.html)

As you can see, the topmost find, not identical to my interpretation, which follows the lines of this one:

 picture by http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodMetalp.html

 is also presumeably forged that way, because the fuller (top photo) follows the edge line.

But there is a problem Mielenko pointed out: If you look at old kitchen knives which have seen a lot of hard use you will often notice a recurve edge line, too. This is often due to a mistake in stropping. If a knife is sharpened a lot just where the edge became dull the blade will develop this edge line, because the edge always gets dulled near the handle first. If you look closely at the second knife in the topmost picture you might get the impression too. The knife has seen a lot of use apparently, for the edge line is drawn in quite a bit and also shows a recurve form. So I must admit I have gone to liberties with the design. I simply cannot tell whether the longer blade actually is authentic.

I have thusly decided, since I am forced to interpret anyway, to dismiss the authenticity a tiny bit and do something of an interpretation again.

The little blade, however (ancient crucible steel and 1.2842) follows the lines of a great many finds and thusly poses no problems whatsoever. I like how the pattern shows, even if it did not weld that good. That´s the problem when you work with salvaged steels - you´ll never know what you get!

But the blade is coming along nicely, with a nice and crispy hardness and great flexibility, so watch this place for news!;-)

Progress on my Rus reconstruction - and Lúgra Móros

 The first steps towards my new Rus knife have been made, and I realized in the process that the Kopis knives I love so much actually have a historical background. One of my all - time favourite and ritual knives, Lúgra Móros (the moon-mare) is very close to a Novgorod find without me intending. In fact, I was always having the opinion, it was more of a Celtic design (hence the Old Gaulic name), but it seemingly also has roots in the Achaemenid Kopis but also in the younger Pishqabz. I wonder a lot of things these days. Could it be that the Varangians who served as a Byzantine palace guard served as a cultural vehicle to submit Persian or general Oriental weaponry and culture to the North? Or was this style of edge line original to Viking culture? What with an Irish influence) Quite certainly an Anglo-Saxon influence can be dismissed. I am fascinated by the thought that the Varangians, when returning home to Kiev or Scandinavia, brought Oriental wares with them (this is well documented). I also wonder whether Varangians also came in contact with Iranian and Oriental Martial arts? Plus, it is safe to say that at least one Russian martial arts and combat style of the medieval ages that was a predecessor to Systema originated in the Ukranian region around Kiev / Novgorod. This is a speculation of course. But a fascinating one...;-)

Anyway, the design of my Rus blade went a bit off the mark of the original drawing, but it is still somewhat historically accurate, for it mixes characteristics of the several Novgorod finds. The deviation is due to my forging it out of memory and not making a scheme out of brass or wood beforehand. This will happen next time. As is, the blade is 115x5mm in dimensions and made out of 45 layers of historical crucible and file steel. A first etching only revealed a tiny bit of pattern, but it is forged out in Masame technique to show the strands better. Below is a small whittling / neck knife I made for fun.

New project I want to start

On http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/novgorodmetalp.html I finally found the knife Joel once upon a time referred to when he first saw Lúgra - Móros, the moon mare. Here he made some similar ones modelled after some medieval knives found with the St. Thomas Guild. The knives in the picture above, however, are Rus knives from Novgorod, from a late Viking area. I simply love the Kopis lines of the topmost design. I do not know yet whether I will do an exact reconstruction or an interpretation of the knife.


Also on schedule is the topmost knife as a seax replacement. I love the aspect that this design transports a lot of cultural interconnections. For the Kopis form is safe to say to have been introduced by oriental employers of Viking mercenaries or tradesmen from the middle east.



This is another thing I want to have...;-), a Rus folding knife. So much for the "Barbarian" Vikings... even more so however, does this find:



..give testament to the theory that Vikings, and Rus, the Viking founders of Kiew, actually were rather civilized gentlemen, for it is a device carried by male and female "Vikings" carried for a rather sophisticated body care. Second to left is an ear-cleansing spoon, and, owning and using one, I can say it beats a q-tip by far.

I have work to do!!!! Copyright of the pics is with  http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/novgorodmetalp.html. If you want to share, please quote correctly. Thank you!