| “ | Will studied the knife more closely, seeing the faint blue tint in the blade, feeling the perfect balance. With its leather and brass hilt, the knife might be plain and functional in appearance. But it was a fine weapon and, Will realized, far superior to the comparatively clumsy swords worn by castle Redmont's warriors." | ” |
The Ranger Saxe Knife is one of the two knives used by a Ranger. It is a specially made close combat knife that is extremely strong.
Description[]
The Ranger's saxe knife is the lower knife in the special ranger double scabbard. The Ranger Saxe Knife is similar the Skandian Saxe Knife (or sea ax) but made of far superior steel (giving the blade a faint blue tint). It is longer than the throwing knife, with a grip made of a series of leather discs set one above the other and a short brass crosspiece. The blade is long and straight, around 20 inches, making it nearly the size of a short sword. It is kept razor sharp on one side while the other end is thick and heavy. Made by the finest steelsmiths in Araluen, the Ranger Smiths, the knife is strong enough to block a sword stroke without being damaged. Even a high grade sword would blunt its edge against a Ranger saxe knife.
At Halt's wedding, Crowley presented Halt with a dress double scabbard and two specially made knives, to be worn at formal occasions. The crossguard and hilt were black with silver decoration, as were the scabbards.
A typical Ranger Saxe Knife from worldofjohnflanagan.com
Usage[]
Although it is mainly used as a close combat weapon, it is balanced for throwing and can be used in unison with the throwing knife in the double knife defense. It can also be thrown hilt first to stun an enemy.
Saxe Knife Blades
Trivia[]
Being one of the many parallels between the Ranger's Apprentice Series and the real world, the Saxe Knife is based on the Saxon Seax. The word "Seax" is a synonym for" knife" in Old English terms and was adapted from the Old Saxon word "saks", also for knife. The Seax was a dagger length single edged knife with a thicker, weighted opposing edge. Many different style seax knives have been unearthed over the years, all of which can be seen on the right. This picture only shows the blade, not the handle. The style Saxe Knife the Rangers use would most likely be blade "a" or "b", due to its description by Will quoted above and the fact that this style hasn't been altered to perform a specific job. These blades are also better for fighting situations and "a" has the optimal balance for throwing, as they sometimes do.
There is a difference between the Skandian Saxe Knife and the Rangers Saxe knife. It has been found that the Vikings adapted the Saxe for their needs and gave it a "broken-back" style, which closely resembles blade "e". If the parallel exists in the Ranger's Apprentice books then the Skandian Saxe should closely resemble blade "e". On the right it what a Viking Seax looks like.
Link[]
~AEM Below are some original Seax Knives and one reproduction
Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on The Saxe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax [1] [2][3]