165 replies to this topic

[J.Arthur Loose]

So Jake and I have a collector in common, a very nice fellow who really enjoys the historical angle. Almost a year ago he commissioned me to make a piece based on an account in Grettir's Saga. Grettir, Our Hero, finds himself in a burial mound, face to face with a zombie (Yes! Viking zombies, who could ask for more?)

The night passed; Grettir appeared early the next morning, and the bondi, who had got all the tools for digging ready, went with Grettir to the howe. Grettir broke open the grave, and worked with all his might, never stopping until he came to wood, by which time the day was already spent. He tore away the woodwork; Audun implored him not to go down, but Grettir bade him attend to the rope, saying that he meant to find out what it was that dwelt there. Then he descended into the howe. It was very dark and the odour was not pleasant. He began to explore how it was arranged, and found the bones of a horse. Then he knocked against a sort of throne in which he was aware of a man seated. There was much treasure of gold and silver collected together, and a casket under his feet, full of silver. Grettir took all the treasure and went back towards the rope, but on his way he felt himself seized by a strong hand. He left the treasure to close with his aggressor and the two engaged in a merciless struggle. Everything about them was smashed. The howedweller made a ferocious onslaught.

Out of the struggle, Grettir finds a Seax...

Then he brought out all the treasure which he had taken from the howe and laid it on the table. One thing there was upon which more than anything else Grettir cast his eyes, a short sword, which he declared to be finer than any weapon which he had ever seen. It was the last thing that he showed. Thorfinn opened his eyes when he saw the sword, for it was an heirloom of his family and had never been out of it.

You can see my first attempt at pattern development here... Alas, it was destroyed in a terrible accident. (Sometimes you should really, really just live with a minor flaw...)

Anyway, to make a long story short, Jake & I were commissioned to do the same piece, and we thought it would be fun & interesting to post our pieces in progress & to sort of egg each other on.

Here's my new start... it's going to be an offset interrupted twist... no edge material yet.

Edited by J.Arthur Loose, 05 July 2005 - 04:14 PM.

[Jesse Frank]

He he...

I'm grabbin' the popcorn so I can sit back and enjoy.....

[Alan Longmire]

Oh, man, this is gonna be a good thread! You and Jake trying to one-up each other will result in some true showstoppers!

[Brian Vanspeybroeck]

Yeah this'll be good.

You guys ( Jesse, J. Arthur,Voltaire, and Randal) got me itchin' to try me hand at the seax. Just spent the whole afternoon making tactical Japanese style tanto (and I'm gettin' good at it too!) and now you guys go and make the seax start talking to me.

I wonder how a seax is at murdering tatami?

It's talkin' to me, Dudes. I'm frightend.

Brian

[Michael Stuart]

What Jesse said, popcorn.

Of course you realize what comes next...

next round you both will have to smelt your own iron too


Michael

[CProkopp]

A little bog iron, some home-cooked charcoal....what more could one want?

[CProkopp]

Oh, yes....and a rematch with that barrow-wight!

[Brett Josef Schmidthuber]

Seaxes. Bladesmith friends competing, and zombies. (I :heart: zombies)

I think this is gonna make My day or possibly even MONTH.. I'll get the formaldehyde. :-D

[OleyFermo]

Hell... you've even got me wanting to make a seax. That takes a deal of doing... and would most likely require me getting off my duff and out into the shop.

Jimmy Irongrimson

[Jake Powning]

here's what I got so far, my inisial sketch for the customer, I've actually made tha blade a bit longer than this.

Attached Files

•  1vimo5.jpg   71.22K   15 downloads

[Jake Powning]

the runes on the scabbard are just pretend they don't say anything, since it was done at a conseptual stage I hadn't put any thought into what names to put on the scabbard and stuff.
here's a pile of all the billets drawn out rough before I squared and prettied them up and put the apposing twists in to the top three, the edge billet is 150 layers O1/L6 and the three top ones are 7 layer opposing twists.

Attached Files

•  1vimo1.jpg   91.98K   16 downloads

[Jake Powning]

here she is this evening laying on top of a little picture of the vimo seax that it is based on.

Attached Files

•  1vimo3.jpg   91.08K   6 downloads

[Jake Powning]

this is just fresh out of the forge with some of the scale knocked off. I think the blade is around 22 inches. you can see the pattern emerging a bit here.

Attached Files

•  1vimo2.jpg   84.77K   9 downloads

Edited by Jake Powning, 03 July 2005 - 07:10 PM.

[Phillip Jones]

Great thread, guys!

Beautiful work so far. Can't wait to see the final outcome from both you talented makers.

[csc]

if the two of you are pushing each other, the customer undoubtably will benafit! I can't wait to see them both done
csc

[Dario Mohamed]

This is a excente work, would please to me to have the capacity to make a work like this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Esto es un excente trabajo, me agradaría tener la capacidad para realizar un trabajo como este.

Dario
Argentina

[J.Arthur Loose]

That's really nice, Jake! Is this your first Migration pattern?

I spent about 5 minutes trying to decipher your Runes before scrolling down and realizing they really didn't say anything...

Here's the original images taken from Du Chaillu's "The Viking Age,":



O.K., here was my original sketch:



I think I'll try to make mine more of a reproduction piece, since I can't possibly compete with Jake's carving... But I might try to do some inlay of Runes on the blade, and try to recreate that sheath, which looks like it constructed like a barrel.

[Jesse Frank]

I'm having fun

[Brian Vanspeybroeck]

Dudes!

I'll take one of each.

I'd like to borrow a cup of talent, please....you guys are making this look very exciting. Makes me remember why I started doing this (making blades) and will continue as long as I can. This stuff will outlast us *all*. With luck and the right clients the work you guys are doing will survive for centuries and the folks a few hundred years from now will know that real men created knives with passion and skill way back here in the early 21st century.

I have always believed that 300 years from now, the turn of the 21st century would have been regarded as the Dark Ages of Modern History. An era completely devoid of artistic expression and supreme hand craftsmanship done with passion and style. But watching you guys develop your ideas into steel gives me hope that the folks in the future may believe that not all of us were completely out to lunch.

Cheers, gentlemen. And thanks for the ringside seat!

Brian

[Jake Powning]

Thanks J. That one on the far right of the book is the one I'm basing my piece on, It's a cool design. These are cleavy!
that's funny about the runes. they'r actually a magical formula designed to confuse you.
I've done wrap around edge composit billets before but never a strait laminate with an opposing twist back before, I peeked at the pattern a little today and it looks pretty... pretty.
i like the gripp shape on these Vimo seaxes too it's kinda fish shaped.