In 1601, Elizabeth 1st. had the Earl of Essex beheaded, on a scaffold within the Tower of London. In 2002, we were approached by the custodians of the Tower to provide them with a replica of the headsman's axe.
The surviving evidence came from a fairly naïve contemporary woodcut and from an axe head discovered on the bed of the Thames, which was thought to be contemporary. The making of the axe head was filmed for television. Subsequently we made another replica for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
The axe head was made in a similar fashion to the original, by wrapping and fire welding, but using puddled iron, with the exception of the omission of the cutting edge, the axes being strictly for display or for use in plays.
