Frostward Hand Forged Damascus Steel Halberd | 66 Inch Overall with an 18 Inch Head | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1367

The largest pattern welded piece we make. The entire head, spike, crescent blade and rear fluke together, is forged from a single billet of 1095 and 15N20 and etched bright, mounted on a pale ash stave with polished steel langets. Scale is what makes this difficult. A knife billet can be five inches long and still yield a blade. A halberd head needs eighteen inches of clean welded steel in three directions at once, and every extra inch of billet is another chance for a weld to open up under the hammer where you cannot see it until the etch shows you.

Forged, welded, etched and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, hardened and drawn to 58 to 60 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

How the layer count is built

The arithmetic of a Damascus billet is simple and it explains why layer counts are always the numbers they are. Stack fifteen alternating bars of 1095 and 15N20, weld them into one, and you have fifteen layers. Cut that in half and weld it to itself and you have thirty. Do it again and you have sixty, then a hundred and twenty, then two hundred and forty. Every fold doubles, which is why you see counts like 128, 256 and 512 quoted rather than round hundreds.

There is a limit and it is worth knowing. Push the count too high and the layers become thinner than the etch can resolve, and a five hundred layer billet ends up looking grey and flat rather than dramatic. The strong contrast on a large piece like this comes from a moderate count with the layers manipulated, twisted, ladder cut or pressed into a die, rather than folded endlessly. On this head the figure was raised by cutting into the surface and forging it flat again, which is why the pattern moves in waves across the crescent instead of running in straight lines.

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 ash haft

The haft is American ash, the same timber that goes into tool handles and baseball bats, and it is here for one reason. Ash has long straight fibres that run the length of the stave, which means it flexes under a shock load and returns instead of snapping across the grain. That flex is what keeps a heavy head from beating your hands. It is turned, sanded and finished with oil rather than lacquer, so the grain stays open and the surface grips a dry hand instead of sliding.

Oil finishes want feeding. Once or twice a year, wipe on a thin coat of boiled linseed or a hardwood handle oil, let it soak for twenty minutes and wipe the surplus off. Do not leave it standing in a damp corner or propped against a masonry wall, because wood pulls moisture out of stone and the fit at the head will loosen. Our guide to wooden handle care covers the routine.

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.

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 the entire head Damascus?

Yes. Spike, crescent blade, eye and rear fluke all come from one forge welded billet, so the figure runs continuously from the tip to the hook. The langets and butt ferrule are polished plain steel.

Is a Damascus head as strong as a plain steel one?

Yes when it is welded properly, and this is the whole reason to buy from a forge rather than an importer. A sound weld is metallurgically continuous. A bad one is a crack waiting to open, and it will show in the etch as a dark line the maker cannot hide.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark or choose your own Viking pattern. On an etched head we cut the line and re etch, so the runes sit down into the pattern instead of scratching across it.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The dimensions, the steel and the geometry will match exactly. The pattern will not, because no two billets are cut, folded and manipulated the same way. That is the point of buying pattern welded rather than stamped.

What is the difference between this and the plain steel halberd?

The head is forge welded from two steels rather than one, it runs harder at 58 to 60 HRC, and it carries a pattern unique to the piece. Geometry and length are otherwise the same. It costs roughly a third more.

How long does shipping take?

Two to three business days if it is in stock, but a Damascus halberd head is usually made to order and that means two to three weeks. It ships braced in a long carton, free anywhere in the United States.

What is in the box

• One hand forged Damascus halberd, 1095 and 15N20 head
• American ash haft with polished steel langets and butt ferrule
• Fitted leather head cover
• Care, oiling and sharpening notes for etched Damascus
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

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