The paradoxical bottom/end of the viking axe shaft... how was it really shaped?

by Fimbul-vinter

After making a few knives i recently got hold of an old axehead and am in the process of creating a viking axe. I have procured dry birch from the mountains which has the natural bend below the axehead.

However im uncertain about the shape of the bottom of the shaft. All museums and images show a straight and thinning end of the shaft like this:

https://digitaltmuseum.org/011021908060/oks

I cannot fathom that they would have such a design, even modern woodcutting axes are thick at the bottom.

"But apparently when fighting at sea, in rain, with blood and dirt everywhere, a thinning handle would still not slip out of your hand."

Any input would be appreciated.

wotan_weevil

I cannot fathom that they would have such a design,

It's a very common design. It's one of the three things that often surprise people about battle axes (the other two being how light they are, and how thin the hafts are).

Axes with gently tapering hafts:

Axes with very tapered "pointy" hafts:

Hafts that taper toward the butt are common enough so that they must work well enough in practice. Similarly-tapered hafts are also common on clubs:

(note texturing on the bottom of the hafts to improve grip).

I haven't seen any serious testing of how securely such axes (and clubs) can be gripped, but they feel secure enough when swinging them around. I feel that a bigger ergonomic issue is that the hafts are often (almost) circular in cross-section, and this could result in the axe turning in one's grip when hitting with it.

Some traditional axes do have swollen butts (also, the bottom club in the group above), or metal butt fittings that are wider than the haft. Swollen butts are more common with tanged axes:

Eyed axes often have the haft inserted into the hole from the top end, and the haft (except for the very top, which secures the head) must be thinner than the eye. Since the head is often kept quite thin, and with a small eye, to keep the overall weight down, a large swollen butt can't be used. This might be why swollen butts are more common with tanged axes, but as the examples above show, tanged axes can have taper toward the butt.

Axes with butt fittings:

Axe with both swollen butt and butt fitting:

Axes with metal hafts commonly have swollen butts:

However, there are axes with tapered hafts and butt fittings that continue that taper and therefore don't contribute to grip security:

This reinforces the idea that tapered hafts are sufficiently secure, grip-wise.

Other weapons also have "wrong way" taper, such as for example, some swords (such as many SE Asia dha, Omani kattara, some Japanese swords (if their hilts aren't hourglass-shaped)). Thrusting spears often have hafts that taper toward the head. This means that when thrusting, the taper is the "wrong way" for grip security. However, such spear hafts are typically easily secure enough in the grip.

even modern woodcutting axes are thick at the bottom.

Notably, modern woodcutting axes are typically much heavier than battle axes of the same edge length, head length, and haft length. Modern hafts are usually much thicker and heavier than traditional battle axe hafts.