Niels Provos (Entries tagged as viking-age)

The Serpent in the Sword continued...

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:06:24 -0700

The Serpent in the Sword project is slowly progressing. I have posted a couple more videos documenting the process. In part 2, the bevels of the sword are forged, the geometry is established on a belt sander and the sword is finally heat treated. In part 3, the sword fittings are made, e.g. the lower and upper guard as well as the pommel and wooden hilt. If things go right, the sword will be finished just in time to my visit to Germany in July. The Viking museum in Haithabu has a special event in which 20 Viking ships will sail to its harbor. There is also the new Viking Puppet Theater which should be fun to watch. It's called "Wikinger Puppentheater Ygdrasil" and has it's premiere in April at the museum in Haithabu.

The Serpent in the Sword

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:47:00 -0800

Inspired by "The Serpent in the Sword" from Lee A Jones, I embarked on the quest of forging a pattern-welded double-edged sword that has a visual serpent at its core. The video shows my progress over about 7 days of work. Pattern-welding in addition to structural benefits is also visually very attractive. The sword in this video is constructed from a total of seven bars. Two edge bars, two twisted bars and three bars for the serpent. The whole process while using modern tools is very similar to the one that anglo-saxon or viking-age blacksmiths might have employed. Each step in created a pattern-welded sword is explained and narrated in the video above.

Pattern-Welded Seax

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:17:44 -0800

In my quest to forge another double-edged viking-age sword, I have been experimenting with a serpent pattern. As part of my experimentation, I forged the the seax shown in the picture. It's over all length is 21.5 in, with a 16.5 in long blade and 5in long handle. It's a 7 bar construction. The cutting edge and back are W1. The two twisted bars are 11-layers of 15n20 and 1095. The serpent itself is an 11-layer straight laminate of 15n20 and 1095 backed by two bars of mild steel. As the picture shows the pattern came out quite nicely and the overall shape of the blade is quite pleasing. The next project is going to take the serpent pattern to a double-edged sword. We will see how that goes.

Creating a Viking Sword

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:39:40 -0800

Forging a Composite Viking-age Sword

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:15:11 -0700

The video shows forging a pattern-welded Viking-age sword consisting of a 5-bar construction based on dimensions from a find in Norway. The video shows squaring up the rods and how I bundle the five bars (3 twisted core and 2 edge) into a sword-like object and then forge weld it. Instead of employing a wrap around edge, I am cutting a V into the tip that is forge-welded back together.

Viking-Age Iron Making In Oakland

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:18:22 -0700

Pattern-Welded Kurzsax

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:56:23 -0700

This knife is a multi-bar construction with W1 for the cutting edge and 1095 and 15n20 for the twisted rods. It is inspired by early Viking-age finds from Norway. The guard and pommel are made from brass and embossed with a triangle design. The handle is made from bok oak used in the defensive ring wall of the Viking-age Haithabu settlement in Northern Germany.

The knife was created as the result of an accident. While working on the rods for a Langsax, I twisted too hard and a piece of the rod sheared off. Fortunately, that piece was long enough to suffice for a Kurzsax. The blade is about 7.5in long and then handle measures 5.5in for a total of 13in. The knife features a scandi grind and is very sharp. There is no secondary bevel on the edge.

Mästermyr inspired Chest

nospam@example.com (Niels Provos) — Fri, 20 May 2011 05:29:31 -0700

Last year, I started making an oak chest with forged straps and lock inspired by the Viking-age tool chest found at Mästermyr. The chest uses the same construction as the original one, e.g. mortise and through tenon, rabbets for the front and back, compound angles due to all sides leaning in and dowels. The straps, hinges and chest handle are not authentic but look quite nice.

From Mästermyr Chest

More in progress pictures can be found in the album.