From the flames a beast is born-Seax collaboration

I feel very privileged to have made the acquaintance of Ambar Bahadur Bishwokama, a very accomplished swordsmith and knifemaker from Kathmandu and owner of KC Nepal (https://nepalkhukurihouse.com/). It´s obviously that I have developed a fascination with Nepalese cutlery and with the hard-working craftsmen who are able to create beautiful knives with next to no equipment. This is an inspiration to me, and this is what "Tribal Knifemaking" as we Westerners call it out of a grave misunderstanding, is all about. We tend to see this as romantic, but it is not. It is the way these guys make a living. And in my opinion, they can be very proud. It is not about the fancy tools, it is in the skills that make the knife.

Coincidentally, I also feel very privileged to have made the acquaintance of some Ms. Janet Fischer ;-), owner of www.nordisches-handwerk.de, retailer of fine Scandinavian and bushcraft knifes, materials and fine art in Germany, and chance is, they had a design for a seax lying about don´t doing anything. Some PMs on facebook later and we had a collaboration going, not always easy, but a communication no less (message included for a mad world). In fact, Ambar went outright enthusiastic about the knife and forged away in no time. 





The knives are made from high-carbon spring steel. And next time you whine about not having the equipment to start making knives or tools better shut up- this is how they do it the traditional way. Those are exactly the same tools common in Europe in the viking age. So, while the design of the knife might not exactly be period, the manufacturing process is actually nearly the same as they might have done it in the viking age.

Safety boots? Quit whining! Roughing out the tang... fullering tool? What you need is a hammer and tongs-and skill.
 


The handle roughly hewn...



...would not stay that way for long!

The finshed product surely does not fill the bill of some showcase viking, and of course it would not do for museum reenactors. Taking some liberties, you could see it as similar to some Anglo-Saxon types (See: Wheeler Seax typology)

But keep one thing in mind: In general, you can get a lot of knives for reenactment camp chores. And a lot of them are crap. I am meaning no offence, but there are a lot of smiths on reenactment frairs around thes parts who are better at drinking than at smithing, so to say. This knife is made like a Khukuri and quenched in the same manner. I hope to be able to provide you with a video of a brutal test soon. As far as I can say for now, I am very intrigued by the knife and that does not happen easily! 

You can get them soon from www.nordisches-handwerk.de in the shop or you can write them an Email at kontakt [ätt) nordisches minus handwerk dot de. 

Badass;-) - my new seax

 Okay, so I am not one for running around as a mere visitor of re-enactment fairs loaded with a whole armoury on my back. It´s awkward at best if you want to visit the booths and dismount them with your longsword, short sword, seax, dagger, quiver, bow, arrows, axe, ten knives and whatnot. Seldom do I even wear my (blunt) Viking spatha. It might be very disputable if people in the Viking age went to a market in full assault attire. The sagas do portray people in early medieval Scandinavia as people with a strong background in farming and householding most of the time. Plus, a Spatha was extremely expensive, so even people of higher social status might have preferred a plain seax or long knife for everyday use.

And even if I normally don´t carry that much bulk around, I noticed that a big blade might come in real handy when camp tasks are calling, such as firewood splitting and the preparation of it, preparing food and even carving and other chopping tasks. Plus, okay, I admit it, I am a big boy too;-).

So off to the smithy it was to make me one. I like the fact that it is a tool in the first and the weapon aspect is secondary. It was the weapon of the simple people and served them well every day as a tool while being a worthwhile companion when the going went bad.

I also like the fact that forging one is a great challenge, and I want to get better in swordsmithing as well, so, hey, I thought, what better exercise than that?

 The blade is loosely modelled after a Torgard find. The tang, however, is a free interpretation to aid in cutting. The offset makes it real efficient for that. The handle will be made from the piece of elk antler, but I will fit a pommel for balance, maybe a Wheeler Type XIII, but I am still about on fitting and weighing it in. The blade is not yet as well stropped to make for a real test, but of course...

...I could not resist putting it through some first paces. Chopping full-tilt into mild steel rods dented the edge a bit, but no shards. The blade is tough enough to lever up a 65kg - anvil and to lever up a standard wooden room door. It sings when driven hard;-), sweet. It feels quite nimble in spite of the thick spine. I look forward to it!

On the bench these days... load of work

 First and foremostly, and most important: The Sgian Dhú I forged for Craig for his appearance at the Bethaus smithy! The blade is 3 mm thick and very slicey, made from spring steel. The handle, after I had the weird idea of heat-colouring a stag antler handle after it was mounted and cracked it in the process, is made from very rare reddish bog oak from the Muttental mines, some 150-200 years old.

Then there is a seax, spring steel, and a deer bone handle, yet to be finely ground.










...and a spoon carving knife, a right-handed one, spring steel.

Watch this space!