DEV>The Female Warrior's Knife

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I can't believe I forgot to put this up here!   

The female warrior was found in a grave in Birka, Sweden. She was first believed to be a man, since she was surrounded by a warrior's arms and attire, but was later identified as female, drawing much debate, headlines and worldwide attention. 

This has been such a great piece of work, and I've learned so much while making it! I've made so many new observations about these Viking age Scandinavian/Baltic warknives. These knives are chopping BEASTS with a thickness around 8mm across the spine.
I've worked hard to stay as true to the original find as possible, and with the help of Swedish Master Swordsmith Peter Johnsson, it's been a pure pleasure!
The fittings are all made of brass (which is closer to most viking age bronze mixtures than most modern bronze) and some are tinned to take the appearance of silver. The viking age Scandinavians did love to make things look more expensive than it really was. ;D
The cow leather sheath has a wooden core, carved out of ash and sanded thin and light to only serve as a core support for the protective leather. This was done after some close inspections on the original and the shape of the handle and fittings. Both me and Peter found this part extremely interesting. I consider it quite a functional and practically viable theoretical discovery! We can't be 100% sure though, since the original blade was so swollen and covered remnants of mixed organic materials.
The blade is forged from a steel close to a C45 toolsteel, which gives the blade a shallow hardening in the quench, resulting in a hamon-line. I didn't bother buffing that out though since that wasn't the focus of the piece, neither is there anything supporting that they did much care to bring that out, historically. The grip is made out of ash and reinforced with brass wire and a brass end plate. On this example, the tang goes all the way through, which is rare in viking age knives, and ends with a loop, holding the leather lanyard.

If anyone wonders what a Viking Seax looks like, don't turn to the broken-back-seaxes. Those knives aren't Scandinavian/Baltic. If you're looking for the image of a viking seax, this is it.

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