The New and complete American encyclopedia 1808

The inhabitants ire a mixture of the descendants of the ancient Hunns, Sclavonians, Camani, Germans, Walachians, Greeks, Jews, Turks, and a wandering people called Zigduns, said to b: of uncertain origin, but probable the fame as those we call Gypsies. The Hungarians are said to be of a sanguine choleric temper, and somewhat fierce, cruel, [...]

Johann Georg Kohl 1843

Austria, Vienna, Hungary, Bohemia and the Danube, Galicia, Styria, Moravia, Buckovina, and the military frontier Johann Georg Kohl 1843 ” It is often very difficult,” continued my informant, ” to say whether these Bacony foresters are swineherds or robbers. Their wandering and uncertain mode of life, and their superiority in strength to their more settled [...]

Kita’iescha

From: The Poles in the seventeenth century By Henryk Krasiński 1843 There are on the Carpathians, individuals, who are born, and who die without ever going down to the plains. Some engage in smuggling Hungarian wines, and at times shew themselves in great numbers in the fairs to purchase salt and gunpowder, and to vend [...]

Knives from Zakopane region

“From Peasant Art in Austria and Hungary” 1914 A picture of some knives from the Zakopane region on the Poland, Slovak border.

1844 Description of the “mountaineers” in the Carpathians.

“The mountaineers here are called Huzzulen as in Bukovina. We found two of them sitting by the fire at the inn, leaning upon their hatchets. They told us that they were never without their hatchets, that they travelled with them, danced with them, and wore them as a part of their Sunday finery. They went [...]

Cold steel to sokyra update

I did a little more work on my converted Cold Steel Norse tomahawk…it felt nice but was just a bit too heavy so I worked on grinding the head into a lighter more historically accurate shape. After a few hours of constant grinding and quenching , I can honestly say I am overjoyed at the [...]

Cold Steel to Sokyra

A few weeks ago a took the head off of my CS Norse Hawk and put it on a  hickory sledge hammer handle I had bought just just for this purpose. After trimming the handle it measures at 35″. I took the handle itself to a belt sander and while it already had an oval [...]

Four engaging ways to deal with an incoming attack

Just a short video clip as promised a few posts back. 1. Parry with the poll side of the axe. 2. Parry with the cheek or side of the axe or shaft. 3. Direct block with lead edge then turning to attack. 4. Direct stop with the head of the axe, best done on their [...]

Link: Hurstwic Viking Axe

Here is a link to a nice site that deals with Viking use of the axe…a bit off topic for us but don’t all of us axe swinging wildmen have to stick together? I mean it’s not like we are fencers or something. So vistit the Hurstwic site now!

Blocking with the poll

Soe just what is the poll you may ask? The poll is the butt or back end of your axe head. A good reference site to keep handy for names of axe parts weapon or tool is the Gransfors site. So now that we know what a poll is why do we want to use [...]