VIKING SURVIVAL KNIFE by Tyr Neilsen
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No other sentence describes the importance of a knife in the Viking Age like this Nordic quote: “Knívleysur maður er lívleysur maður” which translates to "The Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man".
A knife was the most essential tool for staying alive in the rugged North a thousand years ago. With cold and hostile winters that could last 6 months out of the year, owning a knife would mean the difference between starving and surviving.
For centuries, a knife was something every Scandinavian man, woman and child owned, in every class of Viking society, including slaves and kings. In the Scandinavian areas, Viking knives came in all shapes and sizes, but the Norwegian versions were more detailed than the rest.
There were two distinctive types of Viking knives, a small knife that served as a household tool, and a larger knife (sax) used for hunting, fishing and fighting.
When Vikings were looking for a reliable and versatile tool to carry on their next wilderness adventure, they looked no further than the sax. Often called a “Viking hunting knife”, “Viking fighting knife” and “Viking war knife”, the Viking sax was a mean, one-handed, single edged cutting weapon, that could be used for hunting, fishing and even combat.
The Viking sax had no crossguard and was often simply made, with hilts of wood, bone or horn and simple fittings. The sharp tipped blade varied in size from 18 to 70 cm (7 – 28 in) and was usually about 8mm thick (0.3 in). This thick blade made it an effective tool for all types of survival work, from skinning wild animals to chopping wood.
TOP ROW: UNDECORATED SAX AND SAX WITH DECORATED GRIP - second ROW: SAX WITH OSEBERG DRAGON STYLE GRIP AND SMALL SAX - BOTTOM: UNFINSHED VIKING SAX
