Wolfnotch Hand Forged Damascus Viking Long Seax with Rosewood Grip | Broken Back Blade and Valknut Etch | Brass Guard and Tooled Leather Sheath | Norse Warrior Gift | RK-1613

The Wolfnotch is a long seax, the big single edged blade that sat between a knife and a sword in the Norse and Anglo Saxon world. The back runs straight out from the guard for most of the blade and then breaks downward in a hard angled clip that carries into the point. That break is the signature of the type and it is where the name broken back seax comes from. The blade is layered damascus, etched to show the fold, with a Valknut cut into the flat below the guard and a band of engraved decoration running down the spine side.

Seaxes are the most common blade find of the whole early medieval period in northern Europe, and the reason is that a seax was never only for fighting. It was the tool a free man carried for butchery, woodwork, eating and defence, worn horizontally across the front of the belt with the edge upward so it could be drawn across the body with one hand. The broken back profile is not styling. Moving the point down onto the centre line of the blade gives you a strong tip that will take a thrust, while leaving a long straight cutting edge and a thick spine you can put your other hand on. Ours is forged, ground, heat treated and fitted in the Czech Republic, and it ships in a tooled leather sheath with brass throat and chape.

Specifications

Why a seax has that broken back

Look at the spine. It runs dead straight from the guard for roughly two thirds of the blade, then drops in a single hard angle to meet the edge at the point. Most blade shapes curve the spine down gradually. The seax does it in one line, and that has consequences you can feel in the hand.

The first is thickness at the tip. Because the drop happens late and steeply, there is a lot of steel still behind the point when you reach it. A seax point does not fold or snap the way a fine drop point will when it meets bone or a shield board. The second is edge geometry. Keeping the spine straight for most of the length means the cutting edge is also straight for most of the length, and a straight edge is what you want for slicing draw cuts, for skinning, for cutting rope and for the plain kitchen work that a seax spent most of its life doing. The third is that the flat top of the spine gives you somewhere to put your thumb or the heel of your other hand when you are pushing a cut through something dense.

Archaeologically the type runs through several sizes, from the small hand seax up to the langseax, which was long enough to be counted as a sword in its own right. This one sits at the long end of the family, which is why it wears a guard and a pommel rather than a plain grip.

The steel and the fittings

The blade is 1095 and 15N20 forge welded in alternating layers, folded, drawn out and ground to shape, then etched so the two steels separate visually. The 15N20 carries nickel and resists the etch, so it stays bright. The 1095 darkens. What you are looking at is the real internal structure of the billet, not a printed or laser marked pattern. Hardened and tempered to 58 to 60 HRC, the blade holds an edge through hard use and still has the toughness a broad single edged blade needs when it is levered rather than sliced.

The guard and the hooked pommel cap are brass, filed and finished by hand, and the swept forward quillon on the guard is there to catch and turn a blade sliding down your edge. The scales are rosewood, a dense and oily tropical hardwood that takes a polish and does not swell and shrink much with humidity, pinned through a full profile tang so the handle cannot work loose. The sheath is vegetable tanned leather, tooled with a border and a running pattern, stitched and fitted with a brass throat and chape.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this seax that means your engraving takes the place of the Valknut or the spine band rather than being added under it, and the leather sheath can be stamped as well. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

A long seax balances forward of a sword of the same length because there is no counterweight pommel doing the work, only a cap. That is deliberate. The mass sits out toward the widest part of the blade, so the seax wants to chop and to cut on the draw rather than to fence at the point. Hold it with your index finger up against the guard and let the hooked pommel sit in the heel of your palm, and the blade will track through a cut without you having to fight it back on line.

For utility work, choke up so your thumb rides the straight spine. For heavier cutting, drop your hand back against the pommel hook and use the length. This is a real cutting blade rather than a display piece, so treat the edge with the respect you would give an axe.

Care

High carbon damascus rusts. Wipe the blade after every handling session, because fingerprints are acidic enough to etch themselves into the surface within a day in a humid room, and keep a light film of mineral oil or blade oil over the flats. Never store a carbon steel blade inside a leather sheath for months at a time. Leather holds moisture and the tanning is slightly acidic, so long term storage should be in the open, oiled, with the sheath kept separately. Full detail sits in steel care.

The rosewood wants a wipe of a light oil once or twice a year. Brass will dull to a warm gold and can be polished back or left. Feed the leather sheath with a leather conditioner about twice a year so the fold at the throat stays supple.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Memphis, Tennessee warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Grain, tone, hammer texture and exact profile vary because each piece is worked by hand from natural materials. Rosewood in particular runs from a light red brown to a deep near purple depending on the board, and the damascus pattern is unique to your billet. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp out of the box

Yes. It is hand ground and sharpened and arrives keen enough to cut paper. Handle it the way you would handle a large chef knife with a point on it.

Is a seax a knife or a sword

This size sits in between, which is exactly why the type existed. It is long enough to be used as a side arm and short enough to be a serious cutting tool, and historically the same blade did both jobs.

Is the sheath belt mounted

The sheath is built to be worn on a belt in the traditional horizontal carry across the front, edge up. It ships as a sheath rather than as a belt rig, so use your own belt through the loops.

Can I have my own runes instead of the Valknut

Yes. Your engraving replaces the Valknut rather than sitting beside it. Use the rune converter on this page to see how your text will read in Elder Futhark.

Will the damascus pattern rub off

It cannot, because it is not on the surface. The pattern is the layered structure of the steel itself, so it runs all the way through and sharpening will never remove it.

How long before it arrives

Processing is one to two weeks in the shop plus transit. Engraved orders sit at the longer end. Shipping within the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One Wolfnotch damascus long seax with rosewood scales and brass fittings
• One tooled brown leather sheath with brass throat and chape
• Care card covering blade oiling and leather feeding
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in Viking seaxes, damascus swords, Viking knives and Norse arms, or read the guides.