The Story of the Hand of Odin:

Norse mythology tells of the dwarf Fafnir who slew his own father to take possession of a vast horde of gold that was bestowed upon his family by Odin himself.  But the King of Asgard’s gift proved to be another of the many games that the gods played with mortals. For the gold was cursed, and in his greed, Fafnir took the treasure deep below the earth where he guarded it day and night until he became a dragon.  Legend tells that the warrior Sigurd, at the behest of Odin, slew Fafnir the dragon using his sword Gram, but that was not the end of the story.  Furious at the gods over Odin’s deceit, Fafnir’s dwarven kin used the iron scales from Fafnir’s body to forge a magical axe with the help of Loki.   Loki promised the dwarves that the dragon magic in the axe would make its owner an equal to the King of Asgard and named it, The Hand of Odin.  The power of the axe was as Loki said, harnessing the might of the gods, but the owner of the axe would be no dwarf, for upon its completion Loki killed the smith and spirted away the newly forged weapon.

Actual Design and Construction:

The axe head is a reclaimed single bit high carbon steel head that I ground back to clean steel and shaped into a traditional Viking bearded axe form.  Each side of the head is hand etched with the image of Fafnir the dragon protecting his horde deep within the bowels of the earth.  The back of the axehead is etched with the same decorative Norse knot I designed and used on the steel belly plate.  The belly plate is attached to the handle with solid brass nails.   I made a steel spiked cap (etched with a Norse dragon knot) that covers the top of the proud portion of the handle and fits over a specially created steel wedge with a threaded protrusion. The steel finial that sits atop the cap is tapped and holds the cap firmly over the top of the handle.  I carved the cap into the shape of a crown and set a 10mm cubic zirconia garnet into the palisades of the crown.  Brass wire wrapping adorns both the proud portion of the handle and directly below the axehead.  The bottom six and a half inches of the oval hickory handle is wrapped with deer hide to form a comfortable and decorative leather grip. All the steel fixtures were treated with a patina to match the blade.  (This axe was created for entry into the YouTube Knifemakers Viking Challenge, where it was awarded third place.)

Specifications:

Axe Head Length: 6.25 inches

Axe Head Width at widest point: 4 inches

Handle Length: 18.5 inches

Overall Axe length: 20 inches

Hand grip length: 6.5 inches

Overall Axe Weight: 2 lbs, 7 ounces