Commissioned Works: Sax Knife

This was a commissioned work for a friend of mine - though I had a lot of artistic freedom.

The Sax-blade is made from some carbon steel (nothing special) and is the only thing I could not manufacture myself so I got it from a friend. So do not ask me questions about the blade - my answers will be quite unsatisfying ;)

The handle is made from some very interesting materials.
The first part is some usual deer antler. But the way I used it shall remind a bit on the shape of bronze age swords.
Then there are the intermediate pieces of leather.
The next part is oak - moor oak to be precise. This means, this piece of wood could easily be around 5000 years old...
After the next piece of leather, there is a piece of oak again.
But a special one again!
Some of you may know the story about the Donar-Oak (Donareiche) which was a sacred place for the Chatti and other ancient germanic tribes of central Germany.
In the year 723 Bonifatius had the oak felled in an attempt to convey the superiority of the Christian God over Thor and the native Germanic religion.
However, and this part is not told by common history pages, the germanic people did not renunciate directly after christianisation and planted a new oak which stood there until the mid of the last century. Only few people know about the place where the remains of this ancient tree can be found.
And this handle is made of it's wood!
If you don't believe this (I swear that I do it!) it may just be a piece of a very very old common german oak...

The sheath is made from veg tanned leather as all my leather works - the viking design is an own one and the Wolfangel is part of the family crest of my friend who will get this wonderful piece...