Persian Hand-Axe w/Celtic Influence

Cai Dubhghlas

My entry is a my best attempt at recreating a Persian hand-axe that I found in the book, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor by George Cameron Stone. I did however take one liberty with the concept and added a back-spike opposite the cutting blade, which is typical of many warhammers of the period. Then I embellished the blade with Pictish knotwork and artwork by etching it into the blade with an acid solution. Most of the techniques used are based on techniques in use during the 1600’s or 17^th Century (late period for SCA purposes). A few modern day conveniences were used in the construction of the piece, and will be demonstrated as how they were used to help the piece maintain a “period look and feel.”

The first thing I did was to find an axe style/shape that I liked and that also fit with some materials that I had on-hand. One of my earlier pieces was an axe that used the tang and langet method of attaching the head; however, documentation on that method was sketchy at best and the blade lacked an appropriately proportioned tang. Looking at my documentation closer, I studied the blade with tang that I used as a basis for that construction method. This time, taking the advice of those more knowledgeable than myself, I decided to pick a piece and then attempt to recreate it to the best of my ability, but add enough personal embellishments that it became my own design. Figure 1 shows the axe that my piece is modeled after and the caption at the bottom of the page describing it.

One of the first notes I made was that it had an ebony handle mounted with rivets to the tang of the blade. This worked out well since I had a ready supply of ebony to use for a handle, and made the piece more period and accurate to the picture. I did note however that the handle is rounded and has a slight taper from the top to the apparent end of the tang in the handle then continued on downward. The reason for this us unknown, but is guessed that it was done to conform to the tang of the blade. My piece has a straight, square tang; therefore, my handle does not have a taper to it.

Another item of note is that the ebony for the handle is more commonplace in the Persian area, since ebony grows naturally around that area and in parts of Africa. Modern day markets however know this wood to be a rarity and therefore it becomes cost prohibitive to waste it. So instead of creating a lot of wasted material in fashioning a completely rounded handle, I decided to take a piece of flat stock wood and rounded the corners to create an oval cross-section. For this I used a simple drawknife, files and sandpaper, most of which are period tools. This shape is well known and actually more common on handles because it keeps the rigidity in the driving force direction, also it is lighter and fits the hand better. If you will notice not many other handle types from the Persian items in Figure 1 show this oval handle, but the axe from Herzegovina does. Handle construction in period was done to suit the bearer of the piece, since wood was a ready and cheap commodity.

In looking at the picture, you notice the axe head and tang appear to be a constant thickness and relatively flat. The only difference is a thin line near the blade that possibly illustrates a thicker area. This is possible since we have seen indications on other pieces on this page that this is designed into, most likely to add extra weight and force near the cutting edge. The roughness of the blade in the picture is most likely due to material breakdown (rust and corrosion) over the centuries, but that line is definate. However, modern convenience comes into play a little, because I cut my blade and tang from a single piece of P.25 A514 medium carbon steel. I have ground the metal and polished it to take a nice finish attempting to take out any indication that the piece was not forged. The blade in the picture would have been heated and quenched so that it would hold an edge. To do this a Smith would have heated it to a cherry red and quench most likely in oil, this makes the metal its most rigid and its most brittle. Next he would have heated the metal until he saw a deep blue color cover the metal and then quench again in oil. The second process is called “annealing,” which was done to relieve some of the stress in the metal so it was not so brittle. Due to the mechanical properties of the metal I used the metal has already been heat-treated.

As you may have noticed, opposite the axe blade is a back spike. This was added not only as artistic license but also as another part of a tool/weapon. As shown on many other pieces in Figure 1, the back spike was a prevalent feature on many mass weapons and it came in various sizes and shapes, as well as decorated and undecorated. I have chosen to make it flat like the blade to create a uniform surface suitable for etching.

To rivet the piece together, I measured and evenly spaced my holes so that it would give a clean appearance. For the rivets I found some nice tin plated(for corrosion resistance) ¼” x 2” rivets at True Value with burrs. A period smith would have drawn a small piece of wire and peened it over on both ends. To avoid the peen marks from appearing in the wood I laid a piece of leather around it as I peened so that the leather absorbed the excess damage that the rivet did not. I am not sure if this method is period but due to its simplicity and usefulness I could only assume so.

So far I have demonstrated my construction techniques and practices and some of those used during the Middle Ages, however the axe itself is only half of the uniqueness of this piece. Figure 2 will show that interlacing, also known as knotwork, existed for quite some time in Persia as the Celts were a very well traveled civilization. It is an excerpt from the book by George Bain Celtic Art: the Methods of Construction and you can see that the Pictish work is more rounded and flowing whereas the Persian version is blocky with sharp turns.

The designs were etched into the blades using a well-documented method known as acid etching. The procedure is to coat the piece with an acid resistant material, I used Asphaltum varnish, and then I let it dry. Next I lay on an electrostatic copy of the image I want to etch and position it how I liked it then taped it down. At this point during my work I discovered that I had reshaped part of my piece when polishing it. The knotwork border that you see in the design sketches was left off because I had not allowed enough room to place them. The possibility exists however that I may later put on a different border, even though the images stand out better without a border. I then traced over the image using a ballpoint pen pressing medium-hard so the image left a good impression. Next I removed the paper to see if the entire image had transferred, once I was sure it was I began to scratch away the areas I wanted exposed. I used a pair of drafting dividers to remove the varnish because the have a nice sharp heat-treated point that is durable and allow for great detail. You could purchase a special stylus to perform the same task or use a knife, it is whatever is desired and best suited to your needs. Once I got the image exposed that I wanted to etch I repeated the process on the other side.

This is the critical part, cause if you mess up you make a new axe and start over.

This is where the blade is immersed in Aqua Regia, an acid solution, to eat away the exposed metal and leave in the design that I wanted. To do this I laid the piece flat and built a clay cofferdam around the edge of the piece. Once that was done I poured in the Aqua Regia and watched it carefully for about an hour and a half making sure none of the acid-resist flaked off damaging the design. When I was satisfied that the acid had ate far enough into the metal, approximately 1/64 to 1/32 of an inch deep, I carefully disposed of the acid and then cleaned off this side and then repeated the process on the other side of the piece. Etching has been shown to be of period, however I am not able to provide any conclusive documentation.

This piece was designed with the intent of a wandering Scotch-Gaelic Celt using his artistry of late period style and techniques with materials from whatever land he may have been in, for this piece it is Persia. The decoration of blades is a well-known fact throughout time as many people endeavor to create finer and more complex works of art. Many of the most decorated pieces were mearly for show, but there exist some examples of actual war weapons bearing inscriptions and even artwork. Figure 3 will show the design that I used on the blade and the following sheets will show some of the design process. Many of the procedures that I used involved modern day tools as “assistants.” During the Middle Ages an Armorer or Weaponsmith would have employed many human assistants, however would have used any mechanical assistant to improved his work.

References

George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor, Jack Brussel, New York, NY.

George Bain, Celtic Art: the Methods of Construction, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1973.

Celtic Europe – Supplement to National Geographic, (Map) Washington, D.C., Vol. 151, No. 5, PP 582A, 1977.