A retirement gift for a man has one job. It has to mark the end of thirty or forty years without being a clock. A forged blade does that because it is a physical object with a date on it, it will outlast whoever gives it, and it does not sit on a mantelpiece doing nothing, which is the fate of most engraved glass.
What is on the tag
Camp knives, skinners, folding pocket knives, seax knives and a few bearded axes. Steel is mostly Damascus of 1095 and 15N20, forge welded and acid etched at 58 to 60 HRC, with plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC on the seax and axe patterns. Blades run 3 to 8 inches with overall lengths from about 8 to 13, and the axes sit near 19 inches on a wood haft with a leather blade cover. Handles are rosewood, walnut, wood, stag horn, micarta and bone, usually with an engraved brass bolster, which on a retirement piece is the surface you want, since it takes a longer inscription than a blade flat does.
What to have cut into it
A name and a span of years is the version that ages best. Job titles date badly and company names change owners. Text engraving is 19 dollars, a symbol is 39 dollars and a family crest is 49 dollars, and engraving is done in the US after arrival. If the piece is going to be presented and then displayed rather than used, think about storage, because carbon steel in a sealed case with no air movement is how a good blade goes spotted in a year. The storage notes cover it in a paragraph. For something with more history behind it than a modern hunting knife, a seax is the piece a Norseman actually carried and the seax buyer guide explains the types. The pieces are in the Viking seax and the wider engraved and personalized range.
Presenting it
If it is being handed over in front of a room, the piece needs to read from ten feet away. A bearded axe does that. A 3 inch folder does not, however good it is. If the plan is a speech and an envelope, the folder is the better gift and the axe is a liability. Decide which room you are in first.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
