Atilivs Ironworks

10/06/2026

It has been a little while since we posted an update on the messer.

Most of the remaining work is fit and finish, and a few details are being kept quiet until the final reveal. Here is a small look at one of them.

I have been engraving the pommel to prepare it for copper inlay.

The blade is already forged and ground. The guard, pommel, and nagel are fitted. At this point, the project is getting close to final assembly.

This messer has taken a lot of planning, measuring, fitting, and correction. It is almost finished, and I am looking forward to showing the completed piece.

09/10/2026

A thousand of you on Facebook now.

I am not going to pretend that is a huge number. It is not. But a thousand people decided to watch someone forge historical blades on weekends, and I do not take that lightly.

No new footage this week, so here is the work instead. Some of these are a few years old. A couple I would build differently today. That is the job.

If you are new here: I forge Roman, Norse, Anglo-Scandinavian, and medieval pieces. Pattern welded when the piece calls for it. As Historically constructed, as my skill allows over convenience, every time.

Thank you all for your continued and dedicated support to this craft!

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

09/09/2026

It is all coming together. All that is left is the handle, and this one gets purple heart. It comes off the saw a dull brown and turns deep violet after a few days in the light.

Some messer history while we are here.

Messer is German for knife. That sounds odd for something this long, and that is the point. A messer is named for how it is built, not how big it is. On a sword the tang runs through a guard and a pommel. On a messer the tang is a flat strip with wood scales riveted to each side, like a kitchen knife, plus a nagel, the steel stud standing off the guard to cover the hand.

They ran from six inch belt knives up to Kriegsmesser with blades a meter long, carried by professional soldiers.

Knifemakers and swordsmiths were separate guilds under separate rules, and guilds had teeth. Inspectors showed up unannounced. Work that failed got seized, sometimes destroyed in public, and the maker fined. Do it twice and you were thrown out of the trade, which meant losing the legal right to make anything at all.

Not sure if mine would pass or not! 😅😅

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

09/07/2026

Hot fit the pommel to the tang and forged out a small Nagel.

The pommel is thick and it fought me the whole way. The tang is narrow at that end, so it heated fast inside the pommel and wanted to bend every time I pushed. Small bites, back in the fire, rinse and repeat.

Depending on where the balance lands I may hollow the pommel to move mass back. That call comes at final assembly.

The client did not want a large Nagel like you see on a lot of messers. Götz Ironworks showed us a smaller one he had done, and that is what we settled on.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

09/06/2026

Rough forging and grinding are done on the messer, and the guard is fitted.

Most of what I build is Viking age. Guards and pommels there have their own problems. This one was complicated in ways I had not run into before.

Four things fought me. Keeping the arm that covers the hand straight and even. Getting the taper from the cross out to the tip to run smooth with no break in it. Hot fitting the tang slot straight and centered. And isolating enough material at each end to form the little diamonds without killing the taper.

Pin and pommel next.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

09/04/2026

First attempt at covering a Type T lower guard in non-ferrous wire inlays.

Several extant Type T hilts show the fittings covered completely in non-ferrous metal. They did this in theory for a few reasons, one to keep the iron from rusting, and two to make the hilt very beautiful and ornate.

Getting the brass and copper to seat in the grooves was easier than I expected. Working out wire thickness was not. It has to be heavy enough to mushroom over and cover the wrought iron, and the grooves have to be spaced so the metal spreads evenly without going thin. I also didn’t have the right size of
brass so I used a lighter gauge than the copper. It did not spread the way I wanted. In the last photo you can see where it ground back to bare iron.

Third attempt at any non-ferrous inlay work, first at this. I am happy with it. This was a spare lower guard sitting on the bench, so finding out what I did not know cost me nothing.

Back to the messer this weekend.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

09/03/2026

I have some leftover sword furniture from the failed Type T sword a few months back, and I decided to try a different method for setting inlay grooves. So far it is working out well. Though I believe I need to go a tad deeper still.

Small jeweler’s saw to set the lines, then a graver to clean them out. Each groove is 0.5mm wide, cut into wrought iron for non-ferrous inlay work.

It is always a little humbling, the self discovery that comes from a task like this. Turns out I am more impatient than I thought. Getting these lines precise and straight takes real attention, and it is a slow process by nature. I will get faster with time, but for now, slow and steady wins the race.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

08/31/2026

Started rough forging the cross guard for the Elmslie 3E messer today.

The client opted for no Nagel. I am working from photos taken by an expert smith during his own museum examination of several messers, and they show the guard set higher on the blade than I expected, high enough that the shoulders sit flush with the bottom of the cross guard. I have been told by other smiths that guards were often fitted from the tip of the blade down, but with the two flares built into this one, that was not possible without opening the hole too wide to fit tight at the shoulders.

Normally a Nagel or a rivet holds the guard set tightly against the tang. Interesting process keeping everything aligned through the initial forging. I ran out of time before I could bend the guard down over the front of the handle, so that is next.

More to come soon.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

08/29/2026

This broke back seax is still available.

Sanmai construction. Wrought iron cladding on both sides, 1075 high carbon core down the center, forge welded and drawn into a working blade. The wrought iron grain shows through on the flats after etching, and no two stretches of it look the same.

Oak handle. Quenched, tempered, etched.

Specs:
Blade: 205mm
Tang: 90mm
Overall: 295mm
Width at shoulder: 25mm
Spine: 7mm
Broke back drop at 130mm from the shoulder
Drop to tip: 80mm
Edge hardness 50 to 55 HRC, tested with hardness files
$250, buyer pays shipping, worldwide.

Message me directly to purchase, or check my website.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

Send a message to learn more

08/28/2026

The messer is coming alive today.

If everything goes as planned, it will be a working tool by tonight.

Rough ground at 36 grit right now, but I could not wait to see the pattern start to show. 144 layers of random pattern welded steel, and it is already talking.

More to come as it takes shape.

Atilivs Ironworks. Ars longa, vita brevis.

Send a message to learn more