My Custom Seax

Uath

Uath

Joined
Oct 25, 2003
Messages
703
I recently bit the bullet and had a custom seax-knife made. I designed the knife, but left it open to the wonderful talents of blade smith Ben Potter to make the knife. Here's his blog about it:

http://benpotterbladesmith.blogspot.com/

I haven't gotten the knife yet. It should come soon. I'm dying with anticipation.

IMG_1227.JPG


The long handle makes it look much smaller than it actually is. The blade is a heavy 15 inches long, single edge. It's hand forged from 1/4 inch 1095 steel, with a peened-over tang. It's got a diamond cross section, but is heavy toward the back. I wanted the handle to be extra long (7 inches of wood) so that it would balance for stabbing. I don't really care how heavy it is. I wanted it heavy.

It may sound corny, but I wanted it to be porportioned like a giant's stabbing knife. I'm just average height, but hey....

I wanted it to look ancient Germanic (400-900 AD). I like the broken back blade design of later seaxs, but the design is so specific to the Scandanavia-Viking era. This design is arguably older and would have been more wide-spread throughout the Germanic world.

I'll post pictures when the blade arrives...I can't wait.
 
Very cool. This is one of my own Potter pieces:

osbergseaxb1.JPG

osbergseax6.jpg

carving1.jpg


Ben has got some serious talent no doubt about it and his prices are VERY reasonable for what you get.
 
Triton,

That is so beautiful!

I do love the broken-back blade style. It was quite a decision to go with the older blade.
I recently saw a documentary on Vikings. They were talking about how Viking technology helped them dominate the areas they raided. Not only their ships, which allowed them to make lightning raids and be gone, but their weaponry. The broken-back seax was mentioned in particular. The blade design is apparently very good at piercing armor, as well as slashing. Not to withstand that is was a useful tool, especially in all the hemp-rope work that needed to be done shipboard. Can you imagine dealing with knotted hemp rope in raging seas??

You can only believe so much from internet wags, but there are "Martial Experts," on the web, that still insist that the broken-back blade design is the best. Really, we're talking about Bowie knives. I see very little difference.

On thing is for certain, only free men were allowed to wear seaxs. It was more than just a knife.
 
Yea, Ben's custom work is fantastic. His carved handles are something to envy. I hope he gets more custom commisions that show his true talent.

BTW I wrote an article on him in Pirates Magazine issue 13 featuring his privateer cutlass. Nice nice fellow!
 
Times are hard. There are lots of guys who would like a custom blade, but can't afford to spend thousands. I'm one of them. It's so wonderful to find an artisan of Ben's talent who is willing to work within one's budget.

I think the seax is beautiful just as it is. I'm going to make the best sheath for it I can make, carry it around for the rest of my life, and then leave it to my son.

Rich men put in a custom order that requires hours of exacting labor. Rich men are hard to find these days.
 
Uath said:
Triton,

That is so beautiful!

I do love the broken-back blade style. It was quite a decision to go with the older blade.
I recently saw a documentary on Vikings. They were talking about how Viking technology helped them dominate the areas they raided. Not only their ships, which allowed them to make lightning raids and be gone, but their weaponry. The broken-back seax was mentioned in particular. The blade design is apparently very good at piercing armor, as well as slashing. Not to withstand that is was a useful tool, especially in all the hemp-rope work that needed to be done shipboard. Can you imagine dealing with knotted hemp rope in raging seas??

You can only believe so much from internet wags, but there are "Martial Experts," on the web, that still insist that the broken-back blade design is the best. Really, we're talking about Bowie knives. I see very little difference.

On thing is for certain, only free men were allowed to wear seaxs. It was more than just a knife.
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Well thank you. I can't really take any credit for it mostly all I did was pay for it. Ben is the man. If you really want to see some more about it you can find my full write up about both the seax and Ben here: http://www.tritonworks.com/reviews?content=reviews&review=bp_Osberg_seax

I agree with your point that we are really dealing with a "bowie" knife. Every culture pretty much seems to have a need for a large working knife / war knife at some point in their history. I too had a hard time deciding on the broken back style... and in fact the decision wasn't final a year or so later I had Ben make me this one:

nijmegentext.jpg


This picture is from his site

Here's a few bad ones I took:

seax4_966.jpgseaxs1_286.jpgseax3_111.jpg
 
Uath said:
Times are hard. There are lots of guys who would like a custom blade, but can't afford to spend thousands. I'm one of them. It's so wonderful to find an artisan of Ben's talent who is willing to work within one's budget.

I think the seax is beautiful just as it is. I'm going to make the best sheath for it I can make, carry it around for the rest of my life, and then leave it to my son.

Rich men put in a custom order that requires hours of exacting labor. Rich men are hard to find these days.
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I think that's neat that you are planning on leaving it to your son (although that blows up my clever plan to buy it in the classifieds when you get tired of it!). I think you've got a very nice commission there and one that I would be proud to own. Make sure you put up a bunch of new pictures when you get your hands on it.
 
Just as a by the by I was glad to hear that you commissioned this piece from Ben, I think he's been pretty much living hand to mouth the last few years which is just a shame because the guy has amazing talent as an artisan. I wish he would be "discovered" by the community at large so he could make a decent living. Of course that might put him out of our price range. :)
 
I hope we're doing a good job getting his name out right here. I liked the review you wrote. I'll be sure and post pictures as when it comes. I keep looking for a delivery truck, but there's no telling.
 
scotchleaf said:
Triton: that is a great knife!
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Thanks Scotchleaf, I don't typically post pictures from my collection I don't want to seem like I'm bragging or something. I'm not I've just been very fortunate to find some very talented individuals over the years before they were "discovered." I figured I might make an exception this time since I'd really like to see Ben succeed in this profession, he's too talented to be wasted on some 9-5 office job. :)
 
Uath said:
I hope we're doing a good job getting his name out right here. I liked the review you wrote. I'll be sure and post pictures as when it comes. I keep looking for a delivery truck, but there's no telling.
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I hope so too, seriously if any of you guys are in the market for a seax or pretty much any sort of historical or historically inspired fixed blade you really ought to give Ben a look. His prices are VERY reasonable for the work he does and he pretty much seems to always over deliver! Also his wait time the last time I dealt with him was remarkably short. If people really figure out what a bargain he is I don't expect ANY of those things to be true. (Well except the part about him being a truly decent human being and very honest.)
 
Triton said:
I hope so too, seriously if any of you guys are in the market for a seax or pretty much any sort of historical or historically inspired fixed blade you really ought to give Ben a look. His prices are VERY reasonable for the work he does and he pretty much seems to always over deliver! Also his wait time the last time I dealt with him was remarkably short. If people really figure out what a bargain he is I don't expect ANY of those things to be true. (Well except the part about him being a truly decent human being and very honest.)
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I need too....
 
You know, our knife design here in the USA is sure true to Anglo-Saxon roots:

Your broken-back, Osberg Seax might as well be a Bowie Knife. It's just like a Confederate Yankee-Killer Bowie.
Your Nijmegen Seax might as well be a WWII bayonette, right off a Garand.

There's no doubt that the Seax was one of the most influential knife designs in all of history. Right after the double-edged dagger.
 
seax-Vert.jpg


Here's another picture. It's funny how porportion fools your eye. The seax above and the seax below have the same length blade:

osbergseaxb1.JPG
 
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