As I understand it, the Viking’s axe was able to do all the wood crafting chores that a regular axe could but with some design features that made it better for a weapon than a regular axe. I think theses axes are called bearded axes but I’m not sure. Can anyone tell me more?
Thanks
Thank you Anna Trocity
It’s a pleasure to read your posts.
of course vikings used bearded axes
I wonder why a “street guy” like you is so interested in stuff like that.
Duhhh… Axe is the self-defense weapon of the new (OK, current) millennium.
an axe is the sign of a free man
If I might toss an actual response in among the chortling middle schoolers:
Were you asking whether the Vikings had some special feature to their axes that made them extra deadly? The answer to that would be no. Most European cultures used axes in war and peace, and most of them used designs that were essentially the same.
There were different designs, yes, but they weren’t confined to one culture.
So are you saying there was no distinction between a regular wood chopping axe a farmer might use and a battle axe of a soldier?
way too funny :headbang:
I don’t think so. But to chop a man with an axe favors certain specific attributes that anyone reliant on the tool would be able to discern… and since no country has a monopoly on warriors, nor axes, that design specs would be quite similar as they evolved into better tools for war. Kinda like how all too many martial arts look as if they use the same maneuvers but call them different names.
Physics only works one way here on earth. Scandinavian gravity is the same as it is in France as it was in china.
To chop wood requires different attributes, and so war axes are different. Much like the flail evolved out of the tool used for threshing, and so on.
Respectfully,
Ray Nelson
Only dwarves had a different battleaxe, in both design and heft enabling them to dominate underground, where gravity was also different.
`~/
Nope. I’m saying that what he asked also implied that the axes used by Vikings were different from the axes used by, say, the Celts in France. The answer to that question is no, because the war axes used in those two cultures were pretty similar.
As noted above, when axes were made specifically for war, they tended to be thinner and lighter, and many had a back spike or a second blade rather than the simple rounded back created by the wrapping process a smith used to make the typical hatchet without having to drift an eye for the haft.
The question about “bearded” axes is answered similarly. Most European cultures, to my knowledge, used both bearded and “unbearded” axes and hatchets. The Vikings were no exception. The different designs were dictated by the intended use and preferences of the user.
As for your question about farmers vs. soldiers, that depends on how much money the soldier had and whether he was also a farmer, doesn’t it? 
There are numerous depictions of Viking raiders using hatchet-type small axes without exaggerated “beards”, back edges or spikes.
According to the British of the day, those worked fine.
Ragweed Forge has a good page on throwing hawks (so obviously he’s neglecting the larger, heavier species of axes here) that shows patterns used by Gauls, Vikings, Normans, and more.
http://www.ragweedforge.com/ThrowingCatalog.html
Most are what we could call “bearded.” Check out the Norse patterns–Ragnar states that one of them, with a small hammer face back, closely resembles the Norse ship-builder’s axe. It is “bearded” and has a head similar to a war axe, but mostly because the ship builder would often use it to plane or shave wood and this was easier with the hand choked up behind the edge, which can’t be done with, for instance, a modern woodsman’s axe.
All I’m saying is that we should avoid the idea that the Vikings were mystical warriors with secret weapons. Were I to say this about ninjas or Samurai or Marines, there’d be no surprise. 
I’d like to add to this if I may:
Bearded Axes lika almost all axes were primarily tools.
As most Viking raiders were nothing more than farmers/laborers or traders looking for
a quick buck, they did not invest heavily in to weapons and armor.
A regular Viking raider was part of a Village Co-Op that built a ship, equipped the ship
and manned the ship. Money was short usually and many times the raiding journey
started out as a legit trade trip that simply turned in to a raid by opportunity.
So, until later in the Viking era when organized large scale military operations took place
the bearded Axe was just a everyday tool.
About the “Mystical Warrior” stuff, this was largely part of how the christians at the time
viewed an aggressive pagan adversary, something the Vikings did little to discourage
as it very much worked in their favor .
Regards
ES
'prezackly.
Oh, and guns are for pussies.
Gun-shooting sissy.
Welcome to Bullshido.