Wildcleave Hand Forged Damascus Steel Polearm | 60 Inch Overall with a 26 Inch Blade | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1375

The longest Damascus blade in the polearm range, twenty six inches of forge welded 1095 and 15N20 on a plain ash stave with steel collars. The pattern on this one is left random rather than manipulated, which sounds like the easy option and is not. A random pattern is the honest record of how the billet moved under the hammer, so every uneven blow and every hesitation shows in it. Manipulated patterns hide a multitude of sins. A long random blade like this one has nowhere to hide, and a smith who offers you one is telling you something about the welds.

Forged, welded, etched and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, hardened and drawn to 58 to 60 HRC. It ships free anywhere in the United States and it can be engraved with Elder Futhark runes or a Viking pattern of your choosing before it leaves the bench.

Specifications

Distal taper and why a long blade needs it

Measure the thickness of this blade at the collar and again three inches from the tip and you will find the second figure is roughly half the first. That is distal taper, and it is the single most important thing about any blade over about eighteen inches. Without it a long blade is a bar of steel with an edge on it, and all the mass sits out at the far end where it does the most damage to your control and the least to anything else.

With it, the blade gets progressively thinner as it goes out, so the weight falls away toward the tip and the balance point stays back near the hands. The blade is stiff where stiffness matters, in the thick section near the mounting where all the leverage lands, and light where lightness matters, out at the end that has to travel fastest. On a hand forged blade the taper is put in with the hammer rather than ground away afterwards, which is more work but leaves the grain of the steel following the shape instead of being cut across 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 does random pattern mean?

The layers were not cut, twisted or pressed into a deliberate figure. What you see is the natural flow of the billet under the hammer, which on a long blade produces broad drifting bands rather than a repeating motif. It is the oldest look there is.

Is it sharp?

Yes, the full twenty six inches is ground and honed and the swept tip is finished as a point. This is a large amount of live edge on a five foot lever. Handle it by the haft only and store it where nobody walks past 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. A twenty six inch flat gives us more room than anything else in the range, so long inscriptions are genuinely possible here.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The blade profile, the length and the steel will match. The pattern will not, and on a random pattern blade it will not even be close, because the entire point of a random figure is that it is the record of one specific forging.

What is the difference between this and the ladder patterned Damascus glaive?

Length and pattern. This blade is six inches longer, the haft is plain ash without a leather wrap, and the figure is left as the billet made it rather than chisel cut into rungs. It is the heavier and longer reaching of the two.

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 six inch Damascus blade is almost always made to order. Shipping in the United States is free with tracking.

What is in the box

• One hand forged Damascus polearm, 26 inch 1095 and 15N20 blade
• American ash haft with steel collar, riveted socket and 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 viking weapons, and read the guides.