Double Sided Viking(?) Axe

A revived classical "Viking"(?) design with short handle.

Double sided axes, hand forged by Erich Ermert (www.hobbyundbrauchtum.de). The handle of the left one already was broken, and I didn't replace it, but only cut it and reused the same broken one. You can recognize this one as the mostly used one, because the handle is much darker (dirtier) than the others.

Those axes throw astonishingly well, even the one with the very short handle. The only thing I had to get used to is the circular cross section of the handle, which makes it impossible to know the orientation of the blade without looking at it. This means, one cannot easily handle them blindly (what I like to do).

Design for double bittet axes by Alleswerfer after "field studies" and historical patterns, served as template for the above shown axes. Length of edge about 11 - 12 cm, width about 20 - 22 cm. Length of handle about 35 - 40 cm, diameter not below 3 cm.