Brassmaul Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Medieval Polehammer | 58 Inch Overall with an 8.5 Inch Head | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1359

This is the dressed version of the polehammer, the same three part head in 1095 high carbon steel but mounted on a dark walnut stave with brass langets running down both faces, brass rivets and a turned brass butt ferrule. Brass on a fighting polearm was never structural. It was a mark of who owned the thing. Guard weapons, ceremonial arms and the polearms carried by household troops were routinely finished with bright fittings, engraved cheeks and worked hafts, and a great many of the polearms in museum collections today are exactly these parade pieces rather than field weapons, because the parade pieces were the ones nobody wore out.

Forged, heat treated and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, hardened and drawn to 54 to 58 HRC. It ships with the fitted leather head cover shown, free anywhere in the United States, and it can be engraved with Elder Futhark runes or a Viking pattern before it leaves the bench.

Specifications

What brass langets tell you about a polearm

Langets are the metal straps that run down the haft from the head. Their job is to stop a blade shearing the wood through at the point where all the leverage lands and to keep the head from rotating on the stave. On a field weapon they are iron or steel, because steel is what survives being hit. Put them in brass and you have made a statement, because brass is soft, expensive and takes a shine that iron will not hold.

That is not a criticism of the choice, it is the point of it. A brass fitted polearm reads as a household or guard weapon, the sort of thing carried at a gate or behind a person of rank rather than swung in a melee. Ours are cut from solid brass sheet, drilled and riveted through the haft with brass rivets peened over on the far side, not glued and not pinned with screws. They will darken over a few years to the warm brown you see on museum originals, and that is the finish most owners end up preferring.

Why 1095 high carbon steel and not stainless

Every plain steel piece in this group is forged from 1095, a simple high carbon steel with roughly one percent carbon and very little else in it. That plainness is the point. A steel with nothing but iron and carbon to argue about moves predictably under the hammer, takes a clean quench, and comes back to a hardness a smith can actually hold to. These are hardened and drawn to 54 to 58 HRC, which is deliberately a touch softer than a kitchen knife. A head that has to survive impact wants to bend and rebound rather than chip, and 1095 in that range absorbs a bad hit instead of losing a piece of itself.

Stainless alloys buy their rust resistance with chromium, and above about thirteen percent that chromium ties up carbon in carbides that make the steel harder to forge and more brittle at the edge. On a small folding knife that trade is fine. On a head that lands with the weight of a haft behind it, it is not. The cost of choosing 1095 is that it will rust if you leave it wet. Wipe it, oil it, and it will outlast you. There is more on that trade in our guide to Damascus versus stainless.

The hardwood haft

The haft is close grained hardwood, turned to a slight taper so the hand finds the same place on it every time and sanded through the grits before it takes its oil finish. Dense hardwood is chosen over a softwood for a reason that has nothing to do with looks. A dense stave carries the shock of a heavy head into the wood rather than letting it stop at your palm, and it holds a ferrule or a langet tight for years instead of shrinking away from the fitting after one dry winter.

The finish is oil, not lacquer, which is a deliberate choice. Lacquer looks perfect until it chips, then water gets under it and you cannot fix it without stripping the whole handle. Oil wears gradually and is repaired by wiping more oil on. Once or twice a year, a thin coat of boiled linseed or a proprietary handle oil, twenty minutes to soak, then wipe off what has not gone in. See wooden handle care.

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

Carbon steel rusts. That is the only demanding thing about owning it. Wipe the steel down after handling, because fingerprints are salt and moisture and they will etch a bright surface in a week if you let them sit. A thin film of mineral oil, gun oil or paste wax on the metal is enough to keep it stable indoors. If the piece lives on a wall in a room that swings between damp and dry, check it every few months and re oil. Left alone in a garage or a basement it will spot, and once it spots the mark is permanent even after the rust is removed.

The edge is finished sharp from the forge and does not need attention until it stops biting. When it does, a coarse then fine whetstone, kept wet, held at the angle the bevel already carries, will bring it back in a few minutes. Do not take a powered grinder to it. Our guides cover steel care and sharpening with a whetstone in more detail.

Forged in Memphis

This is made in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing in this listing is drop shipped from an importer catalogue and nothing is bought in finished and re labelled. The steel is cut, heated, drawn and shaped here, the heat treat is done here, and the fitting and finishing are done here by the same small crew. That is also why the lead time is honest rather than instant. Pieces in stock ship within two to three business days. If yours has to be made, or if you have asked for engraving, allow two to three weeks before it leaves the shop. We will tell you which it is when you order rather than after. Shipping inside the United States is free.

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 this a display piece or a working weapon?

It is built as a working head on a working haft, hardened and heat treated properly, but the brass fittings mark it as a dress polearm. Most buyers hang it or stand it. It is a genuine forging either way, not a wall hanger casting.

Do the brass langets weaken it?

Not meaningfully at this length. Brass is softer than steel, so it would take a cut more readily in a fight, but for display, film and collection use it holds the head just as firmly and it is riveted through rather than surface fixed.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark or choose your own Viking pattern. Brass langets are the best engraving surface on any polearm we make, because the softer metal takes a fine line and holds it.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The dimensions, steel and fittings will match. Walnut varies more than most timbers from board to board, so the haft colour and figure will be its own, and the brass may arrive brighter or duller depending on how recently it was finished.

How do I keep the brass bright?

A soft cloth and a little metal polish on the brass alone, avoiding the steel. Most owners do this once and then let it go, because brass that has darkened evenly looks far better against a dark walnut haft than brass kept mirror bright.

How long does shipping take?

Two to three business days if it is in stock, two to three weeks if it is being made or engraved. It ships in a long carton, well braced, and shipping inside the United States is free with tracking.

What is in the box

• One hand forged brass fitted polehammer in 1095 high carbon steel
• American walnut haft with brass langets, rivets and butt ferrule
• Fitted leather head cover
• Care and oiling notes for steel, brass and wood
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

More in poleaxes, halberds, glaives and polearms and maces, and read the guides.