Tidecleave Hand Forged Damascus Steel Glaive | 54 Inch Overall with a 20 Inch Blade | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1374

A glaive with a pattern welded blade, twenty inches of 1095 and 15N20 with a straight spine that sweeps up into a clipped point and a deep belly below it. The pattern here is a ladder, cut across the billet with a chisel and forged flat again so the layers arch into rungs rather than running lengthwise. Ladder is one of the oldest deliberate manipulations there is and it survives on Indo Persian blades from centuries before anyone in Europe was doing it on purpose. On a blade this long it gives you something to read from tip to collar.

Forged, welded, etched and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, hardened and drawn to 58 to 60 HRC. The haft is pale ash with a leather wrapped grip and a steel butt ferrule. It ships 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

The clipped point and why it is there

Look along the spine and you will see it run dead straight for most of its length and then fall away toward the tip in a shallow concave sweep. That is a clip, and it is doing two things at once. It moves the point down toward the centre line of the blade, which turns a pure cutting weapon into one that can also thrust, and it removes weight from the very end of the blade, where weight costs the most in swing speed.

Underneath, the belly does the opposite. The edge bulges downward through the last third of the blade so the widest, heaviest part of the cutting edge sits about two thirds of the way along, which is roughly where the centre of percussion falls on a blade this length. That is the sweet spot, the part of the edge that delivers a cut without sending a shock back into the haft. Falchions and messers use the same arrangement, and putting it on a pole is simply the same idea with five feet of leverage behind it.

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

What is a ladder pattern?

A deliberate manipulation. The billet is cut across with a chisel or ground with grooves, then forged flat again, which drags the deeper layers up to the surface in regular arcs. The result is rungs running across the blade instead of lines running along it.

Is it sharp?

Yes. The full twenty inches is ground and honed and the clipped point is finished as a point. This is live Damascus on a four and a half foot lever, so handle it by the haft and store it where nobody can walk into it.

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 ladder patterned blade we cut into the flat between rungs and re etch, so the line sits with the pattern rather than across it.

Will sharpening ruin the pattern?

No. The layers run through the steel, so a new bevel simply exposes a fresh cross section. It will look paler than the etched flat until it takes an etch of its own, which is normal and easily corrected.

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

This blade is forge welded from two steels in a ladder pattern, runs harder at 58 to 60 HRC, and carries a clipped point rather than a plain curve. It also has a leather wrapped grip on the haft.

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. A twenty inch ladder patterned blade is made to order more often than not. United States shipping is free.

What is in the box

• One hand forged Damascus glaive, 1095 and 15N20 ladder pattern blade
• American ash haft with leather wrapped grip and steel butt ferrule
• Care, oiling and sharpening notes for etched Damascus
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

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