Antiqued Franciscan Axe with Swept Haft and Blades

Ah, the Franks. A Germanic tribe so delicious that hot dogs (and lots of big guys with mustaches) were named after them. It's a little known fact that Nathan, of Nathan's Hot Dogs, was a direct descendant of the Frankish warlord Clovis.

(editor's note: that is completely made up. Stick to the facts or you'll be cloven from our staff).

As I was saying, Franks have nothing at all to do with hot dogs or large, sweaty men. The Franks were a fierce Germanic tribe that eventually spawned the Merovingian and the Carolingian empires. And they also had really cool axes. So cool, in fact, that the Vikings adopted them for themselves.

This particular axe was used by the Vikings for both throwing and for hand-to-hand combat. The up-swept blades end in sharp spikes that can penetrate chain mail armor, either on the forehand or backhand. The swept wooden haft of the weapon provides additional leverage when thrown, although you can't tell that from the image above.