>>960756i'm teaching myself blacksmithing in order to make a seax. my rationale is thus: it's heavy like the batonfaggotry knives, but with a more consistent blade shape and broader angle (like a hatchet), so it is usable as a small froe, so i can use it to make blanks for carving as well as splitting kindling. my intent is to put oversized handles on them, so i can get a lot more chopping power for a lot less weight- making the seax fully replace the role of a small hatchet (at least for softwoods).
the boken-back style allows for that continuous edge like
>>960909 said, but also improves carving and making a more axe-like angle. it also allows you to get a piercing point, even if it's not the stabbing tool of a dagger.
coupled with a narrow-bladed axe/hatchet (for hardwoods) you can get a hell of a lot of woodwork done on a pretty wide variety of woods
