And my axe!

My axe is my primary defense and one of the most distinctive parts about me out on the field. This is why it was so important to me to make it stand out. It was important for me that it is historically accurate, and that it properly represent my persona. 

The creation of my axe is actually a long process that happened over almost a year’s time. Last February, I did the initial construction by layering leather on leather in the vaguest shape of an axe head. Really it looked like a lifesize ork choppa, but it was my axe and I loved it, because it was mine. 7 layers of leather made up the head, on a 1.25in thick piece of rattan. In hopes of making it more balanced, I added a large counterweight to the bottom, a steel pipe-end. I finished it all off by wrapping the entire haft in black duct tape, a misunderstanding of the rules. All told it was a monster of a weapon, 4.2lbs total weight on a 34in long haft. Unwieldy and generally not great to use. On top of all this the first event I took it to the marshall failed it for the head not being thick enough.

Back to the drawing board. I knew adding more layers would make it way too heavy with its current shape. I went to our shire’s woodworker and asked him to allow me use of his bandsaw to cut leather. He was more than happy to see how it would work.

New layers added, new shape cut out, now it looks like a proper historical axe. It was still rather heavy, weighing in at 3.8lbs, which to me felt amazingly light after the original monster.

Off to a kingdom event to fight! I manage to get through three matches in a bear pit when the axe head goes spinning off… apparently glue isn’t enough to keep an axe head on throughout a prolonged combat. As period as it is to have axe heads flying around, it doesn’t help me any. Upon returning home from the event, I added more glue and clamped it tight, then added two wood screws into the head and rattan. I made sure to cover the screws with two layers of duct tape to make sure they couldn’t come out, and that they were short enough to not even make it only halfway through the haft.

I was feeling good. My axe stayed attached throughout entire matches! I could fight and not end up disarmed. Several events and practices came and went. I was given advice and painful lessons from my betters, and I noticed many things. Chief among them was that the counterweight was a great idea when I was holding the axe in the middle, BUT it was a terrible disadvantage when I was holding it near the head and using it as a punching/hooking/defensive weapon. Wilier opponents were striking that bottom piece and making the axe spin around, which left me quite open. I was also having issues keeping the axe on target, as the head sometimes got spun around. Off goes the counter weight, and shaved down the sides. At the anniversary of the event where it was first bounced, I was informed that I shaved too much off.  I was allowed to fight with it because I had left the bottom too big to go into another fighter's face mask.

This was much less discouraging than you might think. I had already planned on making a better haft for the axe and decorating it for war and war practice. Now I just knew exactly what I was working with. I began drawing up plans and doing research. Based on advice that I had been given and what I had seen, I knew I wanted the axe to be a little longer and the haft a little thicker. I did the research on axe heads and haft lengths that I blogged about last month, and I looked into how woodwork and weapons were decorated. I was ready.

The final design that was chosen was a Petersen type D axe head, mounted on a 30in haft. This would give me a total weapon length around 36in. This fits really nicely within the historical artefacts that had been found for the time period I am portraying.  When it was all said and done, the finished piece weighed in at about 3.2 pounds: meaning that, even though it is longer and the haft is thicker, it is overall lighter.

Materials

• 15oz leather
• Thug stick purchased from Munitions Grade Arms
• Gorrilla glue
• Silver Duct Tape
• Red Electrical Tape
• Blue Camp Foam
• Wood Burning Pen
• Linseed Oil
• Process

The steps I used were pretty basic, but they are split into three projects: axe head, axe haft, decorations. For the axe head, I traced out the shape I wanted and then began cutting layers until I reached just two layers shy of the thickness of my rattan. Then, I cut a double axe head and wrapped that around the whole, basically making the eye of the axe out of this last layer of leather. The entire piece was then all clamped together to make sure the glue could properly set and cure. When it was all done, it was a very solid axe head. The next step in creating the head itself was the striking surface and thrusting tip. Both are made from two layers of blue camp foam cut to the shapes that I wanted. This provides the axe with the give required by the rules of our combat. The final step in the creation of the axe head was to wrap the main part of it in silver duct tape, and the killing portions in red electrical tape. It's important for there to be a very clear distinction so there is no questions when it comes time for inspection.

The haft was a 2+in thick piece of rattan. The shaping started on a table saw to get it down to roughly the dimensions that I wanted, leaving a little extra for sanding and getting the shape right. With help from Cian, it was cut down to 1.75in x 1.3in. Then, it was time to shape it on the sanding wheel. This gave it a more pleasant shape to hold and brought it down a little in thickness to make it more manageable. The final step was hand-sanding with a fine grit sandpaper to get a nice finish on the whole.

The decorations were chosen to stand out. I did wood burning along the haft on both sides, starting just after the place where my hand would normally grip the weapon. One side has my motto “í mér tveir úlfar berjast”, or "in me the two wolves fight", and on the other has my name accompanied by 4 bind runes for traits that I want in battle. The head itself has designs drawn on it in black marker: I drew out a simple wolfhead. I also put an aegishjalmur on each side of the axe head near what they call in the sagas the "axe hammer", or the back of the axe. Finally, the most important rune was placed at the base of the axe. It's a bindrune I made out of the runes Berkanan and Rad. It represents myself and my lady, the inspiration for which I fight. To put a nice finish on the axe, I coated the haft in linseed oil, which is a good period stain.

This entire project was a ton of fun. It was the first time I had ever worked rattan to get something different from just a baton, and it was the first time I had ever used a wood burning pen. I got a lot of help from good friends. Vikarr gave me the rattan that eventually became the handle. Cian let me use his shop and taught me how to use tools, and the lovely Cera loaned me the wood burning pen that let me do the decorations on the axe itself. Thank you very much guys.

Now that it's done, I can’t wait to use it. Sadly, that's going to have to wait until St Valentine’s Massacre/Scots-Welsh war later this month, but I’ll be sure to post pictures and maybe video when it finally goes down!

What other topics would you guys like to see me research and cover? Let me know in the comments below.