These blades are hand forged in the fires at White Hart Forge by me, Daniel Klug. I have been making blades for over fifteen years now and teach blade making part-time. I use leaf springs for many of these blades. We also use old logging choker cable and ships wire rope welded together and create a fanciful damascus pattern on the blade. Also, I often will use an old ferrier’s rasp for skinning blades. The teeth of the rasp make for an interesting “snake-skin” like pattern. These steel used is made of high carbon steel and extremely well suited for large blades such as this.
The blades will be forged and shaped by hammer and anvil in a technique known as hard packing the edge. That is, it is not shaped by material reduction like grinding. All the original steel is still there. This makes for a very dense and sturdy blade. After heat treating and tempering in a heat bath for one hour at 520 degrees the blade is let to air cool. The over all length of a Seax can range from about 20 inches to 16 inches with a blade length between 9 and 12 inches. The blade thickness is about 1/8th of an inch and the spine about 3/16.Smaller belt knives will range from 6-8 inch overall with a 3-5 inch blade length.
Each belt knife and seax comes with a leather sheath held together by hammered brass plates riveted in the style of the Old Norse. Also, in the day it was quite common to name one’s seax. You will have the option to have carved near the spine of the blade a name in runes. Some were known as “Wolf” , “Leg Biter” or ” Skull Crusher”. Others may have been the makers mark or a personal name. This option is also available for the axe heads or spears.
Our Axes range from small belt axe to bearded axe to the Great Dane. A typical bearded axe will have an over all length of 7 inches and a blade length of 6 inches. A Great Dane will have a blade length of about 13 inches and an overall length of 14 inches from eye to blade.
The Francisca was an axe favored by the Francs but was also seen throughout Europe. They closely measure about the same as a bearded axe but with a downward slope to the spine at the eye.
PLEASE NOTE: Because these are all hand made one at a time, there will be slight variations in the handle and the blade. The photos used here are of previous works and are intended for descriptive purposes. Your blade and sheath, axe or spear will be similar to these and will be built after the sale. To make a purchase please visit our online shop by clicking on the tab above.
