High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Seax (also Hadseax, sax, seaxe, Scramaseax, Scramsax and Sachsum – lat.-) in Old English means knife or cutting tool. The name of the roofer`s tool, the zax, is a development from this word. In modern archaeology (and further in this article), the term seax is used specifically for the typically large knives that were worn by men in the 5th to 11th century, in the region roughly enclosed by Ireland, Scandinavia and Northern Italy. In heraldry, the seax is a charge consisting of a curved sword with a notched blade, appearing, for example, in the coats of arms of Essex and the former Middlesex.