What in Laymans Terms Defines a SEAX?

[DiamondG Knives]

Hello:
Ive been a lurker here for some time, I have admired the work displayed here, and having finally finished a three bar composite billet, have considered doing a historical piece.

My question: What makes a Seax a seax? From what I have seen, it is a straight edged longknife with a warnclif type point? Should the handle be straight, or should it be curved inward to the cutting edge? Also were the sheaths mainly leather, or were they more of a hard sheath with leather trim? Is there a length that was more typical than others? In the construction of the billet, what is the normal number of bars in the composite??

Thank You in advance

God Bless
Mike

[J.Arthur Loose]

In layman's terms... it's any single edged blade from the Migration / Viking Era; generally one that is bigger than a small utility knife. Think of it as a Dark Ages Bowie, except that some few are as long as full-length swords. Shapes, sizes & constructions vary wildly. Some have wharcliffs, some have an upcurve, some had through or partial tangs, some had full tangs with rivet holes and some full tangs didn't have rivet holes. (How'd they attach the handle?) There are full wooden sheaths as in some of the Vimose pieces and there are a lot of leather / brass pieces from Gotland. There are full leather sheaths not too different from modern Scandinavian sheath styles. Most common number of bars is 3, stacked vertically. I don't believe there are any homogenous blades over the utility-knife size.

Hail Odin
J.Loose

[Jeff Pringle]

Here's an example of the common machete/camp knife-sized sax, this is the sort of blade I think of when I hear the word...

http://www.valhs.org/photo/scramasax/

also the classic fashionably literate sax -

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/index.html
(Do a search for "seax" or "beagnoth")

And how do you attach the handle on them non-rivet-hole tangs?
With the tensioning wrap, is there a narrowing of the tang underneath?

Who sneezed?
Jeff

[J.Arthur Loose]

My theory is that there may have been a small undercut on the wire-wrapped pieces... but I wouldn't be surprised if it was mostly friction with a good glue of some kind. The Neo-Tribals have come up with some pretty good epoxies based on pitch, sap, powdered amber & some other things, so it's certainly possible... and it would bear out that it is still the traditional construction in Scandinavia. I've also noticed that some of the blades with full tangs & no rivet holes have a spot toward the pommel side of the handle where the profile enlarges. If you were to make wooden sides & wrap the whole thing in rawhide you'd have a good grip & a very solid handle since the part that gets bigger would lock things in place... but that is pure unadulterated intuition on my part.

[DiamondG Knives]

Thank you gentlemen, this has clear up many questions I have had.

God Bless
Mike