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Post by Von K on Jul 9, 2024 18:46:48 GMT -5
Yes, I remember talking about Viking single edged knives and swords which came under the broad definition of Sax ( Seax ), mostly on the weapons thread though. Of course the Angles, Saxons, Franks and others used them too. Some debate on whether the name Sax was derived from the Saxons. ![](https://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/pix/viking_saxes.jpg) Some contemporary work based ( roughly ) on the originals. ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55b184c2e4b0071e8748c897/1601984405115-6BQ95M8Y3U7M85PHLK7Y/%C2%A3+000+0+A.jpg) Some damned fine work on those contemporary ones kemp - I'll give 'em eight raised mead horns out of ten--
I'd bet you'd craft a mean scram yourself if you had a mind to!
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Post by kemp on Jul 10, 2024 2:05:25 GMT -5
Too bad I'm trying to do to a custom job on an old sword that was a poor purchase choice on my behalf.
Very utilitarian looking design the scramasax, but it's a hallmark of Norse culture, you always picture a people that may have spent part of their time farming/trades and just dropped the shovel to 'go a Viking' at other times, more or less different from the 'more feudal' Europeans who seemed to be less fluid, more rigid when it came to societal roles, a Knight was a Knight, a serf a serf, although even that picture was not set in stone when you consider that the fighting Landsknechts of the late medieval period came from various classes, but I am digressing.
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Post by Von K on Jul 10, 2024 16:17:49 GMT -5
Basic scrams can be fairly crude in design, just an iron bar with one end clipped or hammered into an elongated point with a hilt at the other and sharpened along the edge. The sort of thing that a regional blacksmith could probably have made, a tool as much as a weapon.
Most surviving historical ones were made of iron from what I can tell whilst most modern recreations seem to be made of steel.
You could post about that sword in our weapons thread if you wanted. I for one would be interested.
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Post by kemp on Jul 10, 2024 19:10:18 GMT -5
Basic scrams can be fairly crude in design, just an iron bar with one end clipped or hammered into an elongated point with a hilt at the other and sharpened along the edge. The sort of thing that a regional blacksmith could probably have made, a tool as much as a weapon. Most surviving historical ones were made of iron from what I can tell whilst most modern recreations seem to be made of steel. You could post about that sword in our weapons thread if you wanted. I for one would be interested. I will stick a pic up when I'm done. Probably just use it to replace an old machete for some clearing work around the place, but I might whack out something like the first one in the pics up top. I'm sold on the utility aspect of the design. Yeah, after the Roman Empire went to shit they closed many of the mines and smelting centres, like the ones at Noricum in central Europe, not much in the way of trading good homogenous steel bar stock for some centuries, and some of it came from the middle east too, to work around that problem local smiths welded steel strips onto iron bodies, gave the steely edge where it needed to be and the iron centre or body was strong, but not brittle so it wouldn't break. Read that the best quality Viking swords did not come from Scandinavia, some good quality sword blades produced in the north, but most imported from parts of the Frankish Empire such as the Rhineland. Agree with you in that the regional smiths made more basic items such as scrams, and of course knives, arrow and spear heads, axes and so on.
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Post by Von K on Jul 11, 2024 17:23:12 GMT -5
Basic scrams can be fairly crude in design, just an iron bar with one end clipped or hammered into an elongated point with a hilt at the other and sharpened along the edge. The sort of thing that a regional blacksmith could probably have made, a tool as much as a weapon. Most surviving historical ones were made of iron from what I can tell whilst most modern recreations seem to be made of steel. You could post about that sword in our weapons thread if you wanted. I for one would be interested. I will stick a pic up when I'm done. Probably just use it to replace an old machete for some clearing work around the place, but I might whack out something like the first one in the pics up top. I'm sold on the utility aspect of the design. Yeah, after the Roman Empire went to shit they closed many of the mines and smelting centres, like the ones at Noricum in central Europe, not much in the way of trading good homogenous steel bar stock for some centuries, and some of it came from the middle east too, to work around that problem local smiths welded steel strips onto iron bodies, gave the steely edge where it needed to be and the iron centre or body was strong, but not brittle so it wouldn't break. Read that the best quality Viking swords did not come from Scandinavia, some good quality sword blades produced in the north, but most imported from parts of the Frankish Empire such as the Rhineland. Agree with you in that the regional smiths made more basic items such as scrams, and of course knives, arrow and spear heads, axes and so on. That top one looks to be based on the Beagnoth Seax, runes and all (if not the brass, copper and silver inlay of the original). Modern replicas tend to be of high carbon steel:
![https://www.theknightshop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/650x/c9dcfd7b7989a8e877246fb8f9b6b76e/a/h/ah4171_2_1_2.jpg](https://www.theknightshop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/650x/c9dcfd7b7989a8e877246fb8f9b6b76e/a/h/ah4171_2_1_2.jpg)
I saw a smith on youtube forge a pattern welded seax of a slightly more complex design using a template. Holding the un-hilted tang in a gloved hand he did a fairly decent job of hacking into a beam of 4x4 timber with it.
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