Blades

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A home can hardly be complete without defensive weapons to protect against unwanted visitors. One can have all of the protective runes that one wants, but it is our responsibility to do our parts to protect ourselves. Supernatural protective objects are more likely to protect your doorway by alerting you to danger in time for you to avert disaster than they are to create an impenetrable force field that zaps an intruder when they try to cross over your threshhold. Besides, a carefully made quality blade is also beautiful, and can be useful for many peacable activities. You do have sharp and dangerous knives in your kitchen, do you not? I personally prefer sharp objects to explosive weaponry (ie, guns) because of both their peaceful uses and the fact that they are much less likely to be involved in a serious accident. How often do you see news reports of someone killing a friend by accidentally dropping a sword? I currently possess the following: My sword is a "Warrioress Sword" hand forged by an artist working for Windlass Steelcraft and purchased from Medieval Weapon Art. It is an unusually short sword, only 33 inches from pommel to point, which is what differentiates it from a typical mens' sword. It is, nevertheless, quite heavy and considerable strength is required to wield it. The sword is well balanced with the brass hilt and pommel necessary to counterbalance the heavy blade. It is a broadsword, used for slicing, as opposed to a rapier which would be used for stabbing. The steel has a high carbon content for strength and to hold a superior edge, but requires regular treatment to prevent rust. I've had the blade sharpened to a razor-edge and it is now battle-worthy and as fine a weapon as one might have used in centuries past. My axe was hand forged over hot coals by Will Vaughan, a weaponsmith here in Raleigh. He made it specially for me, and the size and weight are ideal. It is incredibly lightweight and perfectly balanced - you can hold it on the tip of a finger. It has had many uses, from cutting up dead indoor trees to sharpening wooden stakes and cutting down bamboo stalks to make practise weapons. The design is an authentic 12th century Norse hawk style which can be seen in historical contexts. The head may be easily removed and placed onto a shorter handle for throwing. I assembled this spear from pieces acquired from multiple sources. The spear head and butt are both hand forged steel, but the head had been darkened to look old, while the butt had not (I bought them from two different stores). The spearhead is from Ragnar's Ragweed Forge. Go check out his site, it's great! I sanded the head so that the edge, center, and other upraised bits of the blade shine of bright steel, as do some parts at the base where it connects to the shaft, and the edge where it has been sharpened. The shaft is a 1.25" diameter hardwood dowel which I shaved on the ends so the pieces would fit, then I pounded them into place. The shaft has at the top a success bindrune, a protective algiz rune, and a bindrune of my initials. Down the shaft it reads "defense:justice:victory:success". The shaft has been treated with a homemade protectant and stain to make it durable and a little darker. I keep the spear in the corner behind my front door so that if I see someone questionable through the peephole it's handy. My knife is similar in size and shape to a sgian dubh. The blade is damascus steel: steel layered with other metals, in this case copper and bronze, to form a stronger blade and a beautiful pattern. The handle is polished amber. It's hard to see the pattern in the blade in the picture, because of the glare from the flash, but if you look closely you can see the red and yellow rings. With the damascus blade and amber handle it has a decidedly Norse look about it, but I haven't found any historical data to support that thought. It was made by Little John of Houmfort d'Ogoun in West Virginia. Go look at their website and laugh at the photos of scantily clad women holding fantasy weapons. I saw their shop at the NC Rennaissance Faire and there was a great deal of historically accurate work, as well as runic jewellery. So it's not all silly fantasy stuff. I use this knife mainly for ritual work (no, I have never cut anything from the animal kingdom with it), or to wear in my boot as a sgian dubh at events. It also has been used for assorted food purposes when I felt like showing it off. My dagger is the only item in this list which was not hand made. There's nothing particularly special about it, it's just a razor sharp dagger which lives in my kitchen and is used primarily to cut open food packages. It's very useful for puncturing things, where regular kitchen knives may not work well. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of it, however. Updated 23 May 2004