Bill's Seax

This seax was a gift for William Short, the leader of a Viking group called Hurswtic that I have had the immense pleasure of befriending over the last few years. He became interested in the creation of iron during the Viking Age in Iceland, and began a wonderful journey to learn the art of Iron making. I was invited to be a part of this process, and we ran over a dozen smelts over the course of a year in preparation for a trip to Iceland to attempt iron smelting in situ. You can learn more about the expedition we undertook here: Firing Up Ancient Secrets

This knife was made from iron we made over the course of the year in preparation for the event. I folded the material 11 times to remove impurities and hardened it in water which created beautiful patterns in the steel due to the cross section. This is referred to as hamon in Japanese-style work. The grip was made from boxwood and the sheath was made from leather, which I tooled carefully in a Norse style. The knife was gifted to Bill during a feast we prepared for him, as a thank you for all of his hard work and bringing us along on the Journey. We were able to create iron from ore in Iceland for the first time in 750 years.