Nightward Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Halberd Polearm | 66 Inch Overall with an 18 Inch Head | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1365

This halberd is finished black rather than bright. The head is 1095 high carbon steel, an axial spike with a deep crescent blade and a hooked rear fluke, left in a controlled black oxide instead of being taken to a polish, and it is mounted on a dark walnut stave with brass langets and a turned brass butt ferrule. Black finishes on arms are not a modern affectation. Rough from the hammer, blued, browned or blacked heads were the ordinary condition of issue weapons, because a polish costs hours of labour and buys nothing but a surface that shows every scratch and rusts just as fast.

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 a black oxide finish actually is

Black oxide is not paint and it is not a coating. It is magnetite, the same iron oxide that forms as blue black scale on hot steel, grown deliberately and evenly on the surface in a hot bath so that it becomes part of the metal rather than sitting on top of it. Because it is grown rather than applied it cannot chip or flake, and because it is porous at a microscopic level it holds oil where a polished surface sheds it. That is why the finish resists rust better than bright steel does, even though the black itself offers almost no protection on its own.

The trade is that it wears. Where a hand rubs the langets, where the head meets a wall bracket, the black will thin to grey and eventually to bare steel. On a working weapon that wear pattern is the history of the thing and nobody tries to stop it. If you want the black kept even, keep it oiled and handle it by the haft. On this head we leave the ground bevel of the crescent bright, so the edge reads as a line of light against the dark body.

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

Will the black finish rub off?

It wears rather than peels, because it is an oxide grown into the surface rather than a coating on it. Handling points will lighten to grey over years. Keep a thin film of oil on it and it stays even far longer.

Is the blade sharp?

The crescent edge is ground and honed and left bright against the black body. The spike is pointed. The rear hook is blunt on the inside curve, which is correct for a hook meant to catch and pull.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark or choose your own Viking pattern. A blackened head is the best surface we work on for engraving, because the cut line comes up bright against the dark.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The geometry, length and fittings will match. Black oxide varies in depth from batch to batch, from near charcoal to a deep blue black, and walnut differs from board to board, so the tone of yours will be its own.

What is the difference between this and the polished halberd?

Finish, fittings and haft. This is blackened on a walnut stave with brass langets and reads much darker on a wall. The polished version is bright steel on ash. The head geometry and the steel are the same.

How long does shipping take?

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

What is in the box

• One hand forged blackened halberd in 1095 high carbon steel
• American walnut haft with brass langets, rivets and turned butt ferrule
• Fitted leather head cover
• Care and oiling notes for black oxide finishes
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

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