As I continue on my search for the right example or at least the best information to develop a reproduction drawing on several examples I think that for now I have a leading contender.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax_of_Beagnoth

It looks like the Seax of Baegnoth has most of what I am looking for (except the blade is too long for my tastes- and will certainly cost more with inlay!) Anyway, with the Seax of Baegnoth I get.

-A seax showing a groove- which I like.
-A narrow bladed example with a very different character than my Honey Lane inspired seax.
-It has no pattern-welding- so this detail at least wouldn't even bring up the price more.
-It is dated to the 10 th. c. and at least this far, that looks like the best I am going to get in a non-broad bladed example.
-It shows a multi metal inlay.
-We have all of the dimension- a big plus.

The drawback will be that even if I can- and that's a big IF- have the runic side executed faithfully I don't know what is on the other side. Does anyone know? If it were plain that would be excellent. At this point I don't know if I will have to do both sides. I would prefer not to, due to cost but if history has left us nothing but seaxes of this type inlaid on both sides I'll have to bite the bullet. I would be comfortable- accuracy-wise- in having a similar or characteristic inlay but not a copy of the inlay on the original.

Lastly, I would love to retain the shape of the Baegnoth but have a shorter version at around 20 inches- but I am not sure if this would be a good idea as, from what I have seen, we have no examples of this character. I would consider this the 'Perfect" seax shape and length for this project.

Do others more knowledgable that I believe that a 20 in. "version" of the Baegnoth- would be too much historical speculation.

I have documented the seax of beagnoth with Tod on a measuring session arranged by Ryan Renfro (thanks for that again Ryan).
I'll have a look at my documentation , I think it was on a "do not publish the photos" signed off documentation...so I will have a hunt for anything relevant it may be a while as I am off demonstrating next week at a blacksmiths festival.
The good news is it isn't patternwelded but the bad news is that up close the inlay is pretty trixy almost all twisted copper and silver and extensive down both sides and even a little on the spine.........
It is quite a blade.....

This assumes you mean 20" blade not overall...

The wikipedia article says it has 55.1cm blade which is 21.7". As you want a custom hand forged piece using special steel, fwiw I'd suggest considering asking the maker if a target of say 20.8" +-0.8" is reasonable? (Or what is reasonable?) If they can do tighter than that to the length you want while getting the shape & the rest right great, but they may appreciate the tolerance.

Wikipedia says the overall length is 72.1cm, or 28.385 inches, with a 55.1cm (21.69 inch) blade.... however the British Museum says 81.1cm or 31.9 inches. I'm not sure who is right, but it is interesting that the replicas tend towards wikipedia's measurements... we have a mystery.

So this project is set to be basically a copy of the Baegnoth.

We are planning to execute the complete inlay of the original at this point. One thing that is interesting about this inlay is that there is a seemingly random combination of silver/copper inlay or brass/copper inlay. Tod and Owen believe that this disparity is not due to later repairs but is contemporary to it's construction.

Part of me wants to have the inlay executed in a "perfected" way- with consistent material inlay throughout, reflecting a consistent design, but the other side just wants to have it made "as is". I lean towards having the inlay executed as it appears in an unaltered form even though it does seem a bit odd. I have to wonder why the craftsman would inlay the blade in this way- just having random interruptions of material.

Mainly, I want Tod to be excited about the process so I may leave it up to him.

One thing is nice though- this should be pretty close to a replica of the original. It is going to be a process- that's for sure.

Thanks for the commission Jeremy; this is a job I am really looking forward to and having examined the Beagnoth seax earlier this year I can attest that it is a really interesting piece. The grip and scabbard will of course be conjecture.

I will try and keep you posted with a 'making of' thread.


Tod

I found an interesting document on British langsaxes that might interest some here... http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/myads/cop...6e2e706466

There is even one with iron fittings....:)

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