Also known as a seax, kurzseax, hadseax, sax, seaxe, scramaseax and scramsax. In a nutshell, the sax was the bowie knife of Iron Age Europe. This weapon was carried by the warriors who roamed the misty forests and mountains of the Northern European Iron Age. It was the sax for whom the Saxons were named, and this weapon was one of the reasons the men of Northern Europe were feared by their civilized and barbarian neighbors alike. An ancient type of multi-purpose utility knife with a fairly broad single-edged blade, made strong enough for use as a tool, a weapon, or for hunting, the sax could also be thought of as the Iron Age equivalent of the Medieval messer or hauswehr. This heavy knife can range from as small as a pocket knife to as long as 24” or more, but the weapon portrayed here is about 12”-16”. For game purposes smaller saxes should be considered a large or small knife as appropriate, for larger saxes see Long Sax. The sax was usually carried horizontally on the belt in a large sheath which often covered the grip as well as the blade.

Name	Size	Reach	Speed	Defense	Base Damage	Attack Types	Primary Attack Types	Armor Pierce	Grapple	Hardness	HP
Sax knife	S	1	5	1	1-6	SCP	SC	0	0	9	4

Modern replica of a 9th Century Seax knife


Seax knife, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 700 AD. The grip is missing from this antique, and would typically be made of bone, antler or wood.


Replica of the Nijmegen Seax, by Jeroen Zuiderwijk