I'd look at Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban.sourceforge.net) Based on Linux which, while not classic, has good support for Alpha AXP, and DBAN has credibility. build one for AXP and use it.
Sadly, being Linux based it won't run on many classic systems (e.g. VAXen, PDPs, . . .) but it's possible that someone could do an xBSD port.