Amazing Viking knives!!!

[Walka]

Those are really something special,
I love them.

[Winter]

Oh man oh man, I love them, I tried to make one like them yeears ago. I'm a rank amatuer though.


Viking artwork is in stark contrast to the common held belief of them as barbarians. They were the cleanest and most artistic people in Northern Europe.

[Edvin]

Hello all!

First I like to thank Thomas for inviting me in here, seems like a great place!

As he said , I started making knives about a year and a half ago and been fiddling around in my spare time since then. My main interest are historical knives and the viking age especially. I have a masters degree in archaeology and are currently working with historical artifacts, a real nice work!

I usually tries to avoid modern (electrical) tools but for the metal fittings I have a small drill press and a belt sander in my workshop. For handles I use materials that were in use here in scandinavia in the iron age (birch, mountain ash, alder, limetree, horn from elk and moose) and I try as close as I am able to follow the general outlines and shapes of the originals. The metal fittings are made out of sheet metal and all buckles and rings are made from bar-stock. It is of course a great asset to be able to handle viking age artifacts on a regular basis at work and learn from their techniques and materials.

I have made both "copies" (or at least my impression on) of surviving artefacts as well as more free interpretations. Some of the larger knives below are made for historical reenactment and are blunt for steel fighting.

In the company of other talented people on this forum I am indeed very much an amateur! I still very much enjoy to learn new things though and the only thing I am sure of is that the more I learn the less I am sure of.

If there is anything else, please just ask and I will try to answer if anyone have a question.

Here are some other of the knives I´ve made;

[Winter]

Great work Edvin.

[PSY]

Great work Edvin!
Välkommen. Det här är ett seriöst och bra ställe!

I wonder of the hangers though. Are the knives supposed to be worn horizontal or are they meant to be used to attach the sheath to a horses saddle, being hung over the back or something. This one seems to big to be carried comfortably in the horizontal way.

[Edvin]

Most of the larger weapon-knives were probably supposed to be worn horizontal in the belt. There are som picture stones that shows this and most of the survivning fittings have two or three rings for a loop attatchment.

Most of the weapon-knives (or seax) are around 25-50 cm but some like the one from Kopparsvik are a grand 72 cm. Quite a large weapon and probably both a sign of rank as well for, well, hurting people.

I will see if I can find the picture stone I was refering to.

[EdgePal]

Hi Edvin – and most welcome to this forum, I am very happy that you are here!

Thomas

[mick spain]

Very interesting, and really like the knives

[DCL]

really nice great work..

[robin wood]

Hi Edvin and welcome. Great looking knives. We recently had a thread running about the blades used in medieval period, I put some information up on knives from Novgorod 10th-15th C. Do you have any information on how the blades were made in scandinavia in the viking period? I would be interested to know of any research looking at how blades were made...all steel? all iron? 3 layers? 7 layers? etc This was the picture of the Novgorod knives with the 10th c blades in layer 28 to the right and 15th c in layer 5 to the left.



Are you forging blades or do you have a smith forge them and what steel/iron are they made from?

very interesting work and like you say great to be able to handle the originals it make s for making better replicas. (I make replica wooden bowls and spend a lot of time in museum stores)
Robin

[meles meles]

Impressiv', 'ooman, impressiv...

[paul hardwick]

Very very nice work from a talented young man, and a very warm welcome to BB
Paul.

[Edvin]

In viking age scandinavia most knifes (and to some degree swords) were made of quite soft iron, steel then laminated onto the blades. I can´t say if there is any significant difference between the scandinavian ones and surviving examples in eastern europe. Historical metallurgy research cost a lot of money and most of the surviving knifes from the viking age around these parts are not tested (in my knowledge).

I would dare to guess the transgression in metallurgic advances would be about the same (less iron, more steel) in scandinavia as in that Novgorod-chart.

I am currently only working with commissions and most of the times the klient usually have a specific blade in mind and are able to send it to me. An example are the knife with an Leif Carlsson-blade (good eye PSY!). I´m not forging any blades myself though, another thing to learn at one time or another I´ll guess.

There is not always easy to find good quality blades with an distinct V-shape. Most of the modern ones are not good for iron age-knives due to the cutting angle (Im sorry, I don´t know the correct word in english) and thiness of the blade. Most viking age blades have a quite thick spine (up to 8-12 mm) but are angle of the edge goes all the way up to the spine. Maybe I will find a nice smith here that can make some from my drawings.

Here are a couple of larger war-knifes from Sweden with preserved sheats. The top one are of impressive length, 720 mm and the bottom one are a bit smaller, I believe around 560 mm. They both have exquisite bronze-fittings and iron rings for attachment to a belt.





Here are a two of my own as a rough estimate of what it possibly could have looked like;









I hope I am not posting to many pictures, its hard not too. Also, I have to apologize if I make any error in my spelling and grammar. I usually only write on scandinavian boards.

Best regards!

[robin wood]

You can never post too many pictures, especially the old ones for me. Great knives and good information about the blade shape thanks for posting.

[Karud]

Nice work Is those "circles" decoration of saex scabbards taken from original?