Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Alright, on Andy's old site, he had a side-by-side photo of a seax that I *believe* (I use that word cautiously) was made by MRL, alongside his own customized version of the same seax. It came stock with a bulky celtic-knotted pommel of some kind, which he had removed, as well as an angled brass-colored (don't quote me on materials) "guard" of sorts that didn't extend beyond the width of the blade, also with knotwork of some kind, etc. on it.

I've searched high and low through all of my pictures archived from his site, and searched Kult of Athena and MRL's website with zero luck, trying to find at least the stock version of this seax, preferably in a purchase-able form.

The pommel looked remotely similar to this one, though it was not NEARLY as garishly oversized as this one is, in my humble but clearly stated opinion. The "guard" here is perpendicular to the blade, rather than angled, which indicates that this is NOT the droid I am looking for.


HELP!

That looks an awful lot like one I had from Cas Hanwei that I gave to a friend in the SCA.

The Cas Hanwei ones are no longer made. I have no idea about any others of that particular look. Good luck in your search!

Eledhwen

Yep, totally the Hanwei seax:

If it's not the CAS already mentioned, it may be the old Del Tin. During the first 3 years or so of MRL, Del Tin did all the blades in their catalog. One of these was a sax with a lot of engraving, not etching on the brass guard and butt. I ground off all the engraving on mine and eventually sold it about 10 years ago. I don't believe I have any pictures of it. If you can post a pic of Andy's, I'll let yo know if it's the Del Tin or not. The blade configuration made it fairly distinctive.

It was the Hanwei. Thanks, folks.

Peter Remling wrote:If it's not the CAS already mentioned, it may be the old Del Tin. During the first 3 years or so of MRL, Del Tin did all the blades in their catalog. One of these was a sax with a lot of engraving, not etching on the brass guard and butt. I ground off all the engraving on mine and eventually sold it about 10 years ago. I don't believe I have any pictures of it. If you can post a pic of Andy's, I'll let yo know if it's the Del Tin or not. The blade configuration made it fairly distinctive.

I'm heading out for a little while, so I won't be able to post scans until later, but, yes, there is a similar offering in the early MRL catalogues. Perhaps tonight I can post those.

Point of history, here - only MRL Cat. No. 1 was all Del Tin. Windlass, Johann Schmidberger, and Arms & Armor were all present starting in No. 2. A&A dropped out first, since they didn't feel they made enough money supplying MRL (I know this from talking with an ex-employee friend of mine who worked there BITD). The Schmidberger offerings were available off and on through catalogue 30 (1993). Windlass didn't completely take over until 1996 in Catalogue 45.

This particular offering was only available in the first four catalogues, and is not currently offered by Del Tin Antiche. I have provided a scan of the description and picture from the catalogue.

I thought it was a Paul Chen, but not sure.

So out of the blue one of these just fell into my hands and I believe it is the droid you were looking for! This is the Paul Chen with the angular guard and wooden handle the pummel looks to be well proportioned to the peice, but this ones original sheath has been replaced by a newer hand made sheath. It is well made but does not look very period, that is, I am going to make another that fits my vision of what it should look like.

This style is very Anglo/Saxon/Celtic looking, but I know so many Norse enthusiasts that like it that we all just say we got it in Ireland or off an enemy while raiding, In any case it is a very nice peice. This particular blade is sharpened on both sides.

I sold all but one of my many CS seaxes this weekend at a Celtic/ Norse Festival, several pouches and sundry leather and jewelry goods too, Getting the Chen Seax has allowed me to let go of some of my old stuff and lighten the load, but now I am free to make more! Round 2 coming up!

Scott is right Andy's was the Paul Chen seax. I picked one up years ago due to what Andy had done to his, I'm pretty sure it's still kicking around here somewhere.

I have the Paul Chen Seax but do not like the feel of the handle.
Unfortunatly, I am too lazy to change it<g>.