Cold steel does the "sexy Sax (sic) prank"

[Trooper224]

I had to Google Seax, so I'm obviously ignorant about these. What role did they serve for their owners? Were they equivalent to a dagger, or a Bowie? Were they used in concert with a longer sword, or as back up?

On a more general note, Cold Steel makes some junk, but I've always like their Steel Voyager line. Especially the older versions. I carried a 4" tanto clipped inside my waistband for the 10,000 mile surf trip I did through Mexico. It served me well.

The modern mind has a strong need to define things and put them into neat boxes. When we try to define something like, "What is a Seax?" we have to remember our ancestors didn't share the same propensity. This can make things like categorization difficult. With that in mind, a "seax" is really defined by a combination of the blades profile and the hilt construction. A Seax would have a single-edged blade, often with a clipped point but not always, with the blades tang inserted into a rather simplistic grip lacking a guard or pommel and secured by some kind of natural epoxy. Sizes could range from very small, eating type knives to long sword like proportions. A longer example might be termed a "langseax", lang meaning "long". In such a case, if we read a period account wherein Snorri chops of Siggurd's hand with a "langseax" we can assume with some degree of certainty that it was a larger sword like example.

[Trooper224]

some were straight-up swords. Others were knives, and some (like Bowies) were short swords.

I'm no expert, but I have doubts as to the historicity of a Damascus bladed Seax...

Pattern welded (the correct term for what is commonly called "damascus") blades are found on Seax knives, although by what is erroneously called the "viking" age, the technology was becoming a bit old fashioned. You wouldn't have found one with a pattern structure like the CS knife.

[Mark D]

a "seax" is really defined by a combination of the blades profile and the hilt construction. A Seax would have a single-edged blade, often with a clipped point but not always, with the blades tang inserted into a rather simplistic grip lacking a guard or pommel and secured by some kind of natural epoxy. Sizes could range from very small, eating type knives to long sword like proportions. .

Thanks. Excellent description.

[NEPAKevin]

In some of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles books, he describes the seax so the reader will understand that it is a blade between a knife and a sword that is basically a flat piece of steel with a pointy end, possibly but not necessarily sharpened, that was used in the shield wall to do really bad things to guys on the other side of the shield wall. It's an inelegant weapon for a less civilized age.

[BigD]

I dunno if that's a fair statement about Cold Steal...err Cold Steel - at least Taurus occasionally makes novel products. I'm not sure Lynn Thompson has ever had a novel idea in his head that didn't involve food.

You want a sweet Seax? https://www.wulflund.com/weapons/sae...ted-seax.html/

Regarding the quality of Cold Steel products, I think this video speaks volumes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4DNRn-sK-c

Cold Steel's product did rather well as compared to a much more expensive, much more generally highly regarded knife.

I used to slag off Cold Steel, too, because it's what the internet does. Then I took an objective look and actually tried a few of their knives and ended up buying some.

The newer Cold Steel Lawman or Recon (in CTS-XHP and later S35VN and with DLC instead of the previous black coating) are excellent folders, and when you factor in price they can't be beat. (I wouldn't want the old version in AUS8). The Cold Steel Master Hunter in 3v outperforms production knives that are double the price. You can pick them up on the secondary market at a deep discount thanks to folks like RevolverRob who think they know so much about knives and won't consider them.)

[BillSWPA]

The internet can often be a valuable source of information, but sometimes I just do not understand what it chooses to like or hate, and why.



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