Sax reconstruction

[Chuck Russell]

so its more like soox?

[Martin Wallgren]

so its more like soox?

Well, no!

It´s a short a-sound like the first sound in accept.

The e in seax has often made people say things like se-ax or seeax or saex witch is strange to my scandinavian ears. The ea sound is indicating a sound like ai in air. A sound we indicate here in Sweden with the letter ä. This is soo hard to explaine in writing. A simple conversation would do the trick.

[Robert Vermaat]

The ea sound is indicating a sound like ai in air.

So it's sex after all! But pronounced [saix]..
Joking aside, it's the same vowel as used in 'Saxons'.

[Martin Wallgren]

The ea sound is indicating a sound like ai in air.

So it's sex after all! But pronounced [saix]..
Joking aside, it's the same vowel as used in 'Saxons'.

Hehe.

Exactly, as in Saxons. Would not supprise me at all if there was a connection between the knife and the nation. Could be so simple as that, Saxon = The guys with seaxes. Or that the northwestern tribe of germans where specialised on wearing or making or using the knifes. Alternetively the weapon is named after the people who invented it but that might be less likely.

Hmm... intressting.

[Robert Vermaat]

Exactly, as in Saxons. Would not supprise me at all if there was a connection between the knife and the nation. Could be so simple as that, Saxon = The guys with seaxes. Or that the northwestern tribe of germans where specialised on wearing or making or using the knifes. Alternetively the weapon is named after the people who invented it but that might be less likely.

Er.. I might miss the humour in your post, but at the risk of .. The hel with it. Sure, that's obvious, no? Like the Franks were named (after) the francisca throwing axe.

[Dan Z]

From what I have read while researching saxes, the Saxons did indeed get their name from the blade. Although, much I am doing right now, no one who said it cited anything to back it up other than, well, it kind of makes sense. :lol:

And for the record Chuck, there was a perfectly good reason for being in my sister's closet - I...oh...wait...you said my mother's closet, didn't you? Erhmmmm... :roll:

On a more serious note - does anyone have any suggestions as to what sort of scabbard (in an early 1st century context of course) I should make for this blade?

[Matt Lukes]

You mean the Saxons' name is not from the Sachsen region of Germany? That's what I thought it was...

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Ave,Matt,
From what I've read you are right except it all is
the same. Sax,Saxons,Saxony(then the modern German spelling Sachs)
I bet there's some Latin in there messing with the spelling,too.

[egfroth]

Before we leave the subject of reconstruction vs reproduction, there is (at least in my book) a further meaning - theoretical reconstruction, rather similar in meaning to noun No. 2 above

an attempt to obtain a complete description of an event using the information available, or an attempt to repeat what happened during the event:

in that you make something when you have too little information as to how it was made, to test out a theory.

This is a very worthwhile exercise. It very rarely leads to definitive results - the best one can hope for is usually: this is a possible interpretation of how this was made - because it seems to work if you make it that way.

I've been working for quite some time on a theoretical reconstruction of an armoured sleeve based on 11th century Byzantine ikons, and have had some very rewarding results. Maybe I should put it up on a separate thread.

[Dan Z]

Although National Geographic put their project on hold, it did not stop me from working on sax/seax blade number 2. I took quite a few photos just in case anyone is interested in making one of their own.

The tools I used were: safety glasses, ear protection, work gloves, a saber saw, an angle grinder, a Dremel mototool, a drill, and various files and bits of sandpaper.

Much of my inspiration for this blade came from an archeological report published in 1916. The title page on my photocopy looks like it was cut off a bit, but the title seems to be "Die Bewaffnung der Germane in der alteren Eifenzeit" and while I can't read more than a few words of German, the drawings in the report were very helpful.

I began this project with the bar of steel I had left over from making the first sax which should hopefully appear in teh attachment section as Figure 1.

It was a lovely bar of steel, as far as bars of steel go, but not very sax-like. For the next step I drew an outline of the blade and the tang on the steel using a black marker and then used a ruler to draw the lines I would use for cutting the steel. You might not be able to see the lines on the steel in Figure 2 but the cut lines should be clear enough. The numbers are the order in which I made the cuts.

Figure 3 shows the steel after I made the cuts. It still didn't look very sax-like at this point as you can see so it was time to break out the angle grinder.

[Ironhand]

Hey Dan. Are you going to post new pics after all the engraving? I'm also interested in seeing the scabbard you were working on, but I'll probably see it at Roman Days, maybe. It has a pretty good balance to the blade and I definately wouldn't want to get hit by it. It has a bit more heft than it appears.

[Dan Z]

Angle grinders are very dangerous tools. You should be extremely careful when using them and always wear the proper safety gear!

That being said, back to the project:

Figure 4 shows what the blade looked like after my first round of grinding it. It has the basic blade shape at this point and I paused to trace the outline of the tang onto two pieces of wood I was going to carve for the grips.

Figure 5 shows the blade after a little more grinding was done on the tang and the blade was cleaned up a bit. It was about this time that I realized the drawings in the report showed that at least some of the grips were made by hammering the steel/iron down so that it formed a wide flange along the bottom of the grip. I don't think I could have hammered out a flange like that, but I had already ground out the grip anyway so the point was moot.

At this point I was a bit tired of grinding metal so I switched gears and went to work on the hilt. As I mentioned, I had already traced the outline of the tang onto two pieces of wood. The next step was marking and drilling out the rivet holes in the tang so I could then drill them into the wood. The number of rivets varied considerably. There seems to have been anywhere from zero to 4 rivets in the guard part of the hilt and from 1 to 5 in the hilt part. I went with 2 for the guard and 2 for the hilt.

After the holes were drilled I attached the rough hilt plates to the blade using wood dowels. Then I sanded the hilt to shape. The end result was what you see in Figure 6. The next phase was probably the most labor intensive - making the blade pretty.

[Dan Z]

Here is the blade after all the engraving was done! I still need to rivet the grip to the blade - next workshop!

The blade dimensions:

Length (overall): 22 inches
Length (blade): 18 inches
Width (at guard): 1.5 inches
Thickness (at guard): 3/16 inches
Point of balance (from guard): 4.75 inches
Center of percussion (from guard): 11 inches

I don't know what the weight is to be honest, but it does have some heft to it. With the POB being at 4.75 inches though the blade handles quite well.

Still working on that scabbard, but that is almost done as well - just not enough to take pictures of it.

[Dan Z]

And here are some close up of the file work on the tang. It was when I was studying the drawings of such file work that I realized that I prossibly should not have ground out the grip...still turned out rather nicely though.

This is the underside of the grip and the side that possibly should have been hammered down to form a flange. The flange was then engraved. I suspect the engraving was funstional as well as decorative so I engraved the pattern anyway. You actually can feel the engraving on both sides when you are holding the blade so I think it may have also served to help keep the blade from slipping out of your hand.


This is the file work on the top side.

[brennivs - tony drake]

Dan lovely work D D