Cleftcrown Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Halberd Head | Seven Inch Open Socket Drilled for Two Rivets No Haft Supplied with Fitted Leather Blade Cover | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1368

A halberd head on its own, forged from 1095 high carbon steel and polished bright, with a long axial spike, a crescent blade cut away behind both horns, an upturned rear fluke and a drilled socket ready for a haft of your choosing. Almost every halberd in a museum arrived exactly like this. Wood does not survive five hundred years in the ground or in a damp armoury, so what curators hold is the ironwork, and the hafts you see under them are almost all modern replacements fitted by the museum for display.

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 blade 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 to judge a halberd head

With no haft in the way you can see everything that matters, which is the reason serious collectors buy heads. Start at the eye, the opening where the socket meets the body. That is where all the load concentrates and it is the first place a badly made head shows a fault, either a visible seam that was never properly closed or a sudden change of section that will crack. Ours is punched and drifted from solid rather than rolled from sheet and welded up the back, so there is no seam to fail.

Then look at the transition from the spike into the body. The steel should swell smoothly rather than stepping, because a step is a stress riser. Then the crescent, which should thin evenly from the eye out to the edge with no fat left behind the bevel. Finally the socket itself. Ours is open backed and drilled for two rivets, which is the historically correct arrangement and gives you room to fit a stave without splitting it. A closed socket looks tidier and is far harder to haft.

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.

Hafting the head yourself

This is sold as a head, without a haft, which is how most surviving museum pieces come down to us and how most serious reproductions are bought. It gives you the choice of length, timber and finish, and it keeps the shipping sane, because a finished polearm is a six foot parcel. The socket and langets are drilled and dimensioned for a standard haft section, and any hardwood dowel stock or a turned ash stave will take it.

If you are hafting it yourself, use ash or hickory rather than pine, cut the seat a fraction proud and pare it back until the head drives on hard, and pin through the langet holes with soft steel or copper rivets rather than screws. Oil the wood before you fit it, not after. If you would rather we hafted it for you, contact the shop before you order and we will quote the length you want. Wood care is covered in 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

Does this come with a haft?

No. It is the head only, which keeps the price and the shipping down and lets you choose the length and timber. The socket is drilled for two rivets and takes a standard oval stave of about one and a quarter by nine tenths of an inch.

Is it sharp?

Yes, the crescent edge is ground and honed. The spike is brought to a point and the hook is left blunt on the inner curve. Keep the leather cover on it until it is mounted or displayed.

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 a head alone the flat of the crescent is a large clean surface and takes a longer line than most pieces we make.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The geometry, steel and dimensions will match. Each head is drifted, dressed and polished by hand, so the exact sweep of the crescent and the file work around the eye differ a little from one to the next.

What is the difference between this and the full halberd?

Only the haft. The same head goes on our finished halberds. Buying it loose costs less, ships in a small box and gives you the choice of stave, which is what most collectors and prop makers want.

How long does shipping take?

Two to three business days to leave the shop if it is in stock, two to three weeks if it is being made or engraved. A head ships in an ordinary parcel and shipping inside the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One hand forged halberd head in 1095 high carbon steel
• Open socket drilled for two rivets, no haft supplied
• Fitted leather blade cover
• Care, oiling and hafting notes
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

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