Stormflute Hand Forged Damascus Steel Bar Mace | 28 Inch Overall with 7 Inch Head | All Steel Blackened Haft and Polished Collars | Reenactment Collector Gift | RK-1353

This is an all steel bar mace. The head is forge welded 1095 and 15N20, drawn into six deep flutes around a barrel and capped with a domed Damascus finial, and the haft below it is not wood at all but a blackened steel shaft with polished collars at each end. Solid metal maces are not a fantasy invention. Surviving Persian and Indian gorz and the shishpar of the Mughal and Ottoman world were routinely made in one piece of iron or steel, haft included, because a welded wooden joint is the first thing to fail on a mace whose entire job is delivering shock.

Forged, welded, etched and finished by hand in the Czech Republic, hardened and drawn to 58 to 60 HRC. It ships with the leather wrist strap shown, free anywhere in the United States, and can be engraved with Elder Futhark runes or a Viking pattern before it leaves the bench.

Specifications

What the flutes do to the pattern

Fluting a Damascus billet is the most revealing thing you can do to it. Every flute is a channel cut and forged down into the surface, and the deeper the channel the more layers it exposes. On a flat bar you see the top few layers as long parallel lines. Here the flutes cut through dozens of them at a shallow angle, and the result is the tight nested figure that runs along each rib like the end grain of a plank. The high ridges between the flutes show a different pattern again, stretched and drawn out, because that steel was moved rather than removed.

The domed finial at the crown carries the clearest figure on the piece. Upsetting steel into a dome forces the layers into concentric rings, and on this one they come up as a target of fine circles centred on the tip. Turn it in the light and the circles appear and vanish as the etch relief catches at different angles. It is the same effect that makes a well cut Damascus bolster worth twice the work it takes.

Why Damascus steel and not stainless

The Damascus here is not an etch or a print. It is 1095 and 15N20 forge welded in alternating layers, drawn out, folded, and welded again until the billet carries the layer count you can see on the finished piece. The two steels are close cousins in carbon content, which is what lets them weld cleanly and harden together, but 15N20 carries about two percent nickel. Nickel resists the acid etch. That is the whole trick. When the finished piece is polished and dipped, the 1095 darkens and the 15N20 stays bright, and the layers you cannot otherwise see come up as pattern.

Because both steels are high carbon, the finished piece hardens properly. This one is quenched and drawn to 58 to 60 HRC, hard enough to hold a working edge and still tough enough for impact work. Stainless cannot do this. High chromium alloys will not forge weld reliably at these temperatures and the chromium carbides that give stainless its corrosion resistance also blunt the contrast an etch depends on, so stainless Damascus is usually a faint grey ghost of a pattern. The trade is care. Read more in Damascus versus stainless.

The blackened steel haft

The haft is drawn steel, blackened with a controlled oxide and finished with polished collars at the head and the butt. There is no wood in this piece anywhere, which changes how it handles. Steel is denser than ash by a large margin, so the balance point sits much closer to the middle of the shaft than it would on a wooden hafted mace, and the whole thing feels heavier and steadier rather than head heavy. It also means there is no joint to loosen, no shrinkage in a dry winter and no ferrule to re seat.

Care is simpler than wood but not zero. The black oxide is a stable finish, not a coating, so it will hold up indefinitely indoors as long as it stays dry. Wipe fingerprints off, keep a thin film of oil or wax on the shaft, and do not store it against masonry. If the black ever wears through at the grip from handling, that is honest wear and most owners leave it.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the handle. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it.

Engraving is cut by hand after the piece is finished and before final oiling, so keep the line short and let it sit where the eye already goes. Names, dates, a line of a poem, a maker mark, a unit or a crew number all work. If you are unsure where a line should sit, send us the text and we will suggest a placement before we cut. Full details and examples are on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Damascus needs the same care as any high carbon steel, with one extra thought. The etched pattern lives in a few thousandths of an inch of surface relief. Aggressive polishing, a wire wheel or a scouring pad will flatten that relief and take the pattern with it, and the only way back is to re etch the piece. Clean it with a soft cloth, nothing abrasive, and keep a thin film of mineral oil or paste wax on the steel. Wipe fingerprints off the same day. Rust will start in a fingerprint before it starts anywhere else.

Sharpening does not damage the pattern, because you are only working the bevel and the layers run right through the steel rather than sitting on top of it. Use a whetstone, keep it wet, hold the angle the bevel already carries and work both sides evenly. If the fresh bevel looks paler than the rest of the piece, that is expected, and a light etch will bring it back. See steel care and sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

Every piece we sell is made by hand in the Czech Republic. The smiths there work the way the trade has been worked for a long time, heating and hammering the steel, taking the bevels down by eye, and fitting the handle and the leather one at a time. There is no automated line anywhere in it, so small differences from one piece to the next are normal and expected.

Ransack Viking is a United States company based in North Babylon, New York. We bring the pieces in ourselves, inspect them on arrival and ship them from our own warehouse. If you add engraving, that is carried out here in the United States before your order goes out.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand forged. It is not machine made, not cast and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The grain of the wood, the tone the steel takes from the fire and the oil, the exact run of a pattern, the precise curve of a profile, all of it shifts a little from one piece to the next because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. Two hafts cut from the same board will not read the same. Two etched blades from the same billet will not carry the same swirl.

What does not change is the specification. Dimensions, steel, hardness, fittings and build are the same every time. The character is the part that is yours alone, and it is the reason to buy something forged rather than something stamped.

Frequently asked questions

Is the whole thing Damascus or just the head?

The head and finial are forge welded 1095 and 15N20 and carry the pattern. The haft is blackened plain steel. Pattern welding a full length shaft would add cost without adding anything you would ever see under your hand.

Are the flutes sharpened?

No. The ridges are dressed blunt at roughly a sixteenth of an inch. A mace concentrates force rather than cutting, and a keen ridge would only chip. We can dress them thinner if you ask before we ship.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. The rune converter on this page turns a name or phrase into Elder Futhark, and on this piece the flat of the steel haft takes a line of runes better than the fluted head does. Say which you want.

Is it heavier than a wooden hafted mace?

Noticeably, yes. At around three and a half pounds it is close to a pound heavier than the ash hafted bar mace, and the extra weight sits along the shaft rather than at the head, so it feels solid rather than top heavy.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The form, steel and dimensions will. The Damascus figure will not, because no two etched billets run the same way, and the depth of the blackening on the haft varies a little from piece to piece.

How long does shipping take?

Two to three business days if it is in stock, two to three weeks if it is being forged or engraved. All steel Damascus pieces are usually made to order. United States shipping is free with tracking.

What is in the box

• One hand forged Damascus bar mace, 1095 and 15N20 head
• Blackened steel haft with polished steel collars
• Leather wrist strap
• Care and oiling notes for etched Damascus
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in maces, damascus steel, flails and Norse arms, and read the guides.

Near neighbours in the shop

Next along the rack is the Ravenbeak mace, pattern welded Damascus. For a straight comparison, see the Emberflange mace, 27 inches overall. Worth putting side by side with this is the Nightthorn mace, 26 inches overall.

If you are putting a set together, the Emberhook halberd sits alongside it. You can have this made your way instead on the custom Norse arms page.