Axebloom Hand Made Rose Tone Viking Axe Hoop Earrings with Celtic Knotwork Heads & Hinged Snap Closures | Norse Jewellery Gift | RK-1615

The Axebloom is a pair of hoop earrings with a small Viking axe head hanging from each hoop. The axe heads are the bearded pattern, with the beard of the blade dropping below the eye, and each one carries a panel of Celtic knotwork on the cheek. The hoops are slim and round with a hinged snap closure, and the whole pair sits in a warm rose tone finish rather than a bright yellow or a cold silver.

Norse and Celtic women wore far more metal than the popular image allows, and much of it was small. Tortoise brooches, ring pins, wire rings and pendant charms hung from chains between the shoulders. What is genuinely interesting is that the axe as a worn symbol appears in the archaeology alongside the hammer, and small axe amulets have been recovered from Scandinavian and Rus sites. The axe was the working tool of every household as well as the axe of the raid, and hanging one from your ear says something a little different from hanging a hammer round your neck. These are made and finished in the Czech Republic, and they arrive in a soft pouch inside the box. Kept with the Anglo Saxon and Celtic pieces, and worth setting against the Viking rings and bracelets before you decide.

Specifications

Reading the axe head and the knotwork

The charm on each hoop is a bearded axe, and that is a specific type rather than a generic axe shape. A bearded axe has the lower part of the blade drawn down and back into a hook, the beard, so that the cutting edge is long while the mass of the head stays low. On a full sized axe that gives you a light head with a long edge, room to choke up behind the beard for fine work, and a hook you can use to pull a shield rim. Shrunk down to a charm the silhouette is still recognisable, and it is the reason these read as Norse rather than as a generic hatchet.

The panel cut into the cheek is Celtic knotwork, which is the interlace tradition that runs through Insular and Norse art from the seventh century onward. The rule of true knotwork is that the line never ends. It crosses over and under itself and returns to where it started, and that unbroken loop is why the pattern was used on grave slabs, on manuscript borders and on metalwork. Look closely at the panel and you can follow the strand under and over and back to itself.

The metal and the finish

These are jewellery alloy with a rose tone finish, polished and then relieved so the recessed knotwork stays darker than the raised surface. That contrast is what stops the pattern disappearing at arm length. We are describing the finish rather than claiming a precious metal, because that is the honest description of what these are. They are not solid gold, solid rose gold or sterling silver, and anyone telling you otherwise at this price is not being straight with you.

A plated or finished piece will change slightly with wear at the points of most contact, usually the back of the hoop where it meets the lobe. That is normal for all finished jewellery and it is slowed considerably by keeping perfume, hairspray and chlorinated water off them.

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 earrings this small the workable area is the back face of each axe head, which will take a very short rune line or a single bind rune. Talk to us through the engraving page before ordering engraving on a piece this size, so we can tell you honestly what will read.

Fit and sizing

These are for standard pierced lobes. The post is a normal jewellery gauge and will pass through a healed piercing without stretching it. The hinge swings the post open, you pass it through the lobe, and it snaps closed into the catch on the far side of the hoop, so there is no separate butterfly back to drop on the floor.

The hoops are a small everyday size rather than a large statement hoop, which matters because the axe charm hangs from the bottom of the hoop and adds length. Measure from your piercing down to your jawline if you want to know where the charm will sit. If you wear hearing aids or glasses with a heavy arm, the compact hoop is the friendlier choice. They are light enough for all day wear and there is no weight pulling on the piercing.

Care

Put them on last when you get ready and take them off first when you get home. Perfume, hairspray, sunscreen and hand cream are what dull a finish, and they are all applied before jewellery goes on. Wipe them with a soft dry cloth after wearing to lift skin oil off the metal.

Do not swim, shower or use a hot tub in them. Chlorine and salt water are the fastest way to age a finished surface. If they need cleaning, use a dry or barely damp soft cloth and work the knotwork with a soft brush. Skip liquid silver dips and ultrasonic cleaners, which are made for solid precious metal and will strip a finish. Store them in the pouch they arrive in, away from other jewellery that could scratch them.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

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. Tone, polish, the exact depth of the knotwork and the way the light catches the axe cheek all vary a little because each piece is finished by hand. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not. Even between the two earrings in a pair you may find one axe head sits a fraction differently on its hoop than the other. We wrote up the Norse symbols and what they meant separately, and there is a piece on the Norse gods as well.

Frequently asked questions

Are these solid gold or sterling silver

No. They are a jewellery alloy with a rose tone finish, and we say that plainly rather than implying a precious metal. If you need solid sterling, ask us before ordering.

Will they tarnish

A finished surface dulls slowly with skin contact and much faster with perfume, chlorine and salt water. Keep them dry, wipe them after wearing and they will hold their colour for a long time.

Are they heavy on the ear

No. The hoops are small and the axe charms are thin, so the pair is light enough for all day wear without dragging on the lobe.

Do they come as a pair

Yes, the price is for both earrings, matched, in one pouch.

Can I have runes on them

A very short rune line or a single bind rune will fit on the back of each axe head. Anything longer will not read at this size, and we will tell you so rather than cut something that looks like a scratch.

How long does shipping take

Processing is one to two weeks, plus transit. Shipping within the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One matched pair of Axebloom hoop earrings with bearded axe charms
• One soft drawstring pouch
• Care card covering finish care and storage
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in Anglo Saxon and Celtic pieces, Norse pendants, Viking rings and bracelets and accessories, or read the guides.