Knotsax Hand Forged 1095 Steel Broken Back Seax | 14 Inch Overall | Rosewood Scales and Brass Bolster with Etched Knotwork Panel and Tan Leather Sheath | Norse Gift | RK-2109

The Knotsax is a broken back seax, the single edged knife that Anglo Saxon and Viking age men wore horizontally at the belt and used for everything from eating to fighting. You can identify the type at a glance by the spine. It runs dead straight from the handle, then breaks at a sharp angle and drops to meet the edge at the point, which is where the name comes from. The blade here is polished 1095 with a panel of Norse knotwork etched near the ricasso, set in a rosewood handle between a brass bolster and a brass butt plate, and it comes in a tan leather sheath.

The most famous surviving example is the Seax of Beagnoth, dredged out of the Thames in 1857 and now in the British Museum. It carries the only complete Anglo Saxon runic futhorc ever found on an object, inlaid in copper, brass and silver, along with the maker or owner’s name. So the idea of putting letters and pattern on a seax is not a modern invention. It is the oldest thing about them. This one is made by hand in the Czech Republic, imported and checked by Ransack Viking, and shipped from our Memphis, Tennessee warehouse.

The seax was the knife a Norseman actually carried, and the seax buying guide covers the types and what to look for. Interlace of this kind was the standard decorative language of the period, and the symbols guide covers the patterns that keep coming back. The bearded axes are the usual companion piece if you are building a Norse kit.

Specifications

Why the spine breaks

Nobody wrote down the reason, so what follows is what the shape actually does rather than a claim about intent. The straight section of spine is thick, which makes the blade stiff and gives you somewhere safe to put a thumb or the heel of your other hand when you are pushing a cut through hide or wood. The angled drop at the front moves the point down onto the centreline of the blade, so a thrust drives straight rather than skidding upward the way it does on a blade with a rising clipped point.

There is also a manufacturing logic. A smith forging from a bar can produce a broken back profile with a couple of decisive cuts and very little grinding, which matters enormously when steel is expensive and abrasives are stone. Combine those two facts and you get a knife that is quick to make, stiff, safe to push on and points where you want it. Whole cultures used it for six hundred years for exactly those reasons.

The steel, the brass and the rosewood

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel taken to 54 to 58 HRC. On a knife of this size that is a comfortable working hardness. It takes an edge easily on a stone, holds it through a day of use, and if you do meet something it does not like it will roll rather than chip. The finish is a satin polish, so the etched knotwork panel near the ricasso stays legible instead of being lost in a mirror.

The bolster and butt plate are solid brass, cut and fitted rather than cast on. Brass has always been the fitting metal of choice on knives like this because it machines cleanly, does not rust and takes a bright polish while remaining soft enough to peen. The rosewood scales are dense and close grained with natural oils in the timber. The sheath is vegetable tanned leather in a natural tan, which will darken with handling and sun exposure.

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, so a rune line ordered for the panel by the ricasso takes the place of the knotwork. Given the history of the Beagnoth seax, runes along the flat of the blade are about as period appropriate as personalisation gets. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

The brass at both ends of the handle keeps the balance close to your hand, right around the bolster, so this feels like a knife rather than a small sword. It is comfortable in a hammer grip for chopping motions and equally happy reversed with the thumb on the spine for control work. The flat of the spine is wide enough to take real pressure without hurting your hand, which is what makes seaxes so good at splitting kindling with a baton.

It is a working knife with a full tang and a real edge. Use it for camp, kitchen and outdoor work, and treat the point as a point rather than a prybar.

Care

1095 is not stainless. Dry it after use, keep a light film of mineral or camellia oil on the blade, and do not leave it sheathed in a damp bag. Vegetable tanned leather is slightly acidic when it is new, so a knife stored in a wet sheath will spot within days. Feed the sheath with a balm two or three times a year. Rosewood likes a light oil once or twice a year, and the brass will darken to a warm honey unless you polish it. Sharpening angles and rust removal are covered in our steel care notes.

When the edge goes dull, sharpening on a whetstone covers the angle and the pressure.

Made in the Czech Republic

The Knotsax is made by hand in the Czech Republic. It is not an importer catalogue line drop shipped from a warehouse that has never opened the carton. Ransack Viking buys these outright, brings them into the United States, unpacks and inspects each knife for pin fit, edge and sheath stitching, and holds stock in our Memphis, Tennessee warehouse. Small hand worked batches mean one to two weeks of processing before your order ships. Shipping inside the United States is free, and the lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

Hand made is not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Rosewood is a natural material and the grain, the figure and the colour differ in every pair of scales, sometimes a lot. The angle where the spine breaks moves by a degree or two, the etched knotwork sits a fraction differently, and the tan leather takes dye and finish unevenly the way real vegetable tanned hide does. The dimensions, the steel, the heat treat and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a seax and a bowie

A bowie has a clipped point that rises toward the spine and usually a guard. A seax has no guard and its spine drops to the point instead. The seax is the older shape by around eight hundred years.

Is it sharp when it arrives

Yes, it ships with a working edge that will slice paper and handle camp and kitchen tasks straight out of the sheath.

Can I baton with it

Yes, within reason. The straight spine takes a baton well and the tang runs the full length of the handle. Do not baton through knots or twist the blade in the cut.

Does the sheath carry horizontally like a period seax

It has a belt keeper for vertical carry as shown. Historical seax scabbards hung horizontally across the front of the belt, which you can replicate with a simple pair of leather loops if you want the period look.

Will the brass turn my hand green

Only if you handle it constantly with damp hands. A wipe and an occasional polish is all it needs, and the fittings are far enough from the grip area for it not to be an issue in normal use.

When does it ship

Processing is one to two weeks, then free shipping inside the United States. Returns are accepted within seven days.

What is in the box

• Knotsax broken back seax in polished 1095 high carbon steel
• Rosewood scales on a full tang with brass bolster and brass butt plate
• Etched Norse knotwork panel near the ricasso
• Tan leather sheath with belt keeper
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Hand made in the Czech Republic, shipped from our Memphis, Tennessee warehouse

Explore the range

Browse the other Viking seax blades, the wider Viking knives and the rest of the Norse arms. History and care reading is in the guides.