The Story of An Uneasy Alliance :

Illantul’s oldest inhabitants can be traced back some 5000 years before the age of the winds. The dwarves cared not for the elves and feared their magic. Ever content to inhabit their mountain kingdom they rarely ventured as far west as the elven forests.  When the paths of the two races did happen to cross, animosity would be a kind word for their respective dispositions.  That is until the gnoll uprising shattered the peace in both the dwarven mountains and the elven lands. For the next 100 years separate wars raged with the gnolls and both races grew weary of conflicts they could not win.  In hopes of ending both wars, the young elven king called upon the dwarves to consider joining forces against the hordes of gnolls.  The leaders of the ancient races sent emissaries to meet at the castle of Bedadune with the hope of finding common cause in their fights against the gnolls.  But Dwarves are nothing if not stubborn and the meetings remained fruitless as they continued for more than a decade, during which time both elven and dwarven bloodshed continued at the hands of the gnolls.

 A breakthrough finally arrived when an elven solder inadvertently rescued a young dwarf from a war party of gnolls, and the lad turned out to be the son of the king.  The times that followed were referred to as “Alancair” by the elves, “Durantide” by the dwarves, but in either tongue the meaning was the same: “An Uneasy Alliance”.    To seal the agreement the elves sent their greatest mystics to the dwarven kingdom where together they forged an axe of great renown.  The combination of the dwarf’s mastery of metal work and strong elven magic created the weapon that turned the tide against the gnolls.  Legend says that so long as the axe remains unbroken so will the alliance between the two great races.   

Actual Design and Construction : 

The axe head is a reclaimed forged steel head that I ground back to solid steel and shaped into its current form.  On one side I hand etched an image of the dwarven mountain kingdom behind the king of the dwarves.  The opposite side depicts the elven realm behind a portrait of the young elven king.  The handle is constructed of ash.  In both ends of the handle I vertically inserted a threaded rod which is secured horizontally through the handle with a steel pin.  The fixtures above the head and at the knob were carved from brass, treated with a patina, and tapped in order to be secured onto the threaded rods.  The belly plate is etched steel and a two-strand twisted brass wire wrapping accents directly above and below the axe head.  Finally, the bottom six inches of the handle is wrapped in a black 1/8 inch deer hide leather lacing, a crossed design is then laced over the first level of lacing and the final bottom inch of the handle is wrapped  second time to secure all of the handle wrapping without the use of any adhesives.

Specifications:

Axe Head Length:  5.25 inches

Axe Head Width at widest point: 4.75 inches

Handle Length: 18 inches

Overall Axe length: 21 inches

Hand grip length: 6 inches

Overall Axe Weight: 1 lb. 8.85 ounces

Sheath Construction: 

The sheath is constructed of 4-5 oz veg tanned leather with an 8 0z welt. It has a minimalist design to cover the sharpened edge, but none of the etched designs.  The sheath is handstiched and stained black.