Stefen's Sax

I made this sax for a great scholar and friend of mine.  He is well learned in much of the old lore as well as experienced in new systems of numerical mysticism and esoteric lock-making and lock-breaking. The runes on the scabbard name this sax his, and I know he will treasure it. This blade is work of mine from long ago, but it has a place to go and I will see it there. 

The blade is the first multi-bar I forged on my own, a year and a half ago, after my very first with Owen Bush.  The handle I made under the learned eye of Petr Floriánek, of brass and elk antler and centuries-submerged bog oak.  The grooves in the blade I cut by hand and the brass engravings as well. 

The carvings, engravings, and leather toolings are all motifs inspired by the rich and majestic material culture of the Wends, known in their native tongue as Vendels, a prosperous but mysterious flourish in the history of Scandinavia.  The silent eyes of hoary-bearded men stare out from their artifacts; they need not the written word for you to know of their might.  Written on their very war-gear is the evidence of the sway they held when they walked this earth, and knowing their names or not, you will remember them.