Boarhelm Hand Forged 1095 Boar Spear | 13 Inch Lugged Head on a 30 Inch Olive and Walnut Haft | Steel Butt Spike and Leather Sheath | Hunting Gift | RK-1593

The Boarhelm is a boar spear, which is a very particular kind of spear and not just a short one. The head is a broad double edged blade with a raised central ridge, forged from 1095 high carbon steel and taken to a mirror polish. Where the blade meets the socket it opens into two hooked lugs that curl back toward the point. Those hooks are the entire reason the type exists.

A wild boar that has been speared does not stop. It drives forward along the shaft, and hunters in medieval and early modern Europe learned the hard way that a plain spear simply lets the animal reach the person holding it. The answer was a crossbar or a pair of lugs set a hand span behind the point, deep enough that the blade does its work and no further. The German hunting manuals call the spear a Schweinspiess and show the bar clearly. The Boarhelm is a Norse styled version of that idea, forged, ground, polished and assembled in a Czech Republic workshop and covered by our lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings, with no end date and no receipt needed.

Specifications

What the hooked lugs are doing

Look at where the hooks sit. They are roughly eight inches behind the point, which is far enough that a thrust puts the whole cutting length of the blade into the target and short enough that nothing much gets past them. The hooks curl toward the point rather than away from it, which is deliberate. A straight bar can be slid over if the animal twists. A hook catches and holds, and the more the animal pushes, the tighter the hold becomes.

There is a second use that has nothing to do with hunting. A pair of forward curled lugs will catch a blade, a haft or a shield rim and hold it while you turn. Fighters who used short spears in close quarters relied on exactly that. It is the same principle as a sword hilt with side rings, moved out to the end of a shaft.

The third thing worth noticing is what happens on withdrawal. A plain leaf head can lock into bone or wood and take real effort to free. The swept hook gives you a shoulder to lever against, so a slight twist and a pull clears the head instead of a straight heave.

1095 high carbon steel and a polished finish

The head is forged from 1095, a simple high carbon steel with about one percent carbon and almost nothing else in it. That simplicity is why smiths have used it for two centuries. It moves predictably under the hammer, it hardens deeply in an oil quench, and it takes and keeps a fine edge. We temper this head back to 54 to 58 HRC, which is softer than we run a small knife on purpose. A spear head takes lateral shock that a knife never sees, and a little toughness bought at the cost of a little edge retention is the right trade on a hafted piece.

The mirror finish is worked up through progressively finer abrasives and then buffed, which means the surface is genuinely flat rather than coated. Polished 1095 shows fingerprints and it will rust if it is neglected, but it also reveals the geometry of a grind in a way that a blasted or coated blade hides. The knotwork band on the collar is engraved after polishing. The haft pairs pale olive at the front with dark walnut at the rear, both pinned to a steel core assembly, and the rear terminates in a pointed steel butt spike that can be driven into soft ground.

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, the leather or the wood. 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 where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this spear the flat of the blade below the lugs takes a rune line cleanly, and the olive section of the haft is a good place for a name. Details are on the engraving page.

Balance and handling

Thirty inches overall makes this a one or two handed short spear rather than a polearm. It balances just behind the steel collar, so it feels a little head forward, and that is correct for a thrusting head this broad. In one hand it points naturally. In two hands with the rear hand at the butt spike it has enough leverage to hold a position.

The blade arrives sharp on both edges and at the point. This is a working forged spear, not a costume prop, but it is not sold for battle ready sparring and it should never be used against another person. Used for target work, hunting display or wall mounting it does the job it was designed for. The butt spike is genuinely pointed, so mind where you set it down.

Care

Mirror polished 1095 is the least forgiving finish we make. It will show a fingerprint within a day and it will freckle if it is put away wet. Wipe the head down after every handling session and keep a thin film of mineral oil, camellia oil or paste wax on it. Do not store it inside the leather sheath for long stretches, because vegetable tanned leather draws moisture. If a spot does appear, it comes off with a little oil and a green pad worked along the polish lines, not across them. Our steel care page covers this in detail. The olive and walnut wants a wipe of Danish oil once or twice a year, and the steel fittings take the same oil as the blade.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Memphis, Tennessee warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Olive wood in particular is wildly variable, and the swirling dark figure that makes it worth using also means no two hafts are alike. Walnut ranges from mid brown to almost purple. The sweep of the lugs and the exact width of the blade shift by a fraction because they are forged by hand. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp out of the box

Yes. Both edges and the point are sharpened before the head is fitted. It ships in a leather sheath and should be treated like a large knife rather than a display item.

Can I actually hunt with it

It is built on the historical pattern and it will do the work, but spear hunting is tightly regulated and legal in only a few places. Check your state rules before you take it into the field.

Why is this one so short compared with a Viking spear

Boar spears were deliberately short. You want the animal close enough to control and a shaft you can brace, not a twelve foot pole you cannot bring to bear in cover.

Is the blade Damascus

No. This one is plain 1095 taken to a mirror polish. If you want the pattern welded version of a lugged head, look at our Damascus winged spear instead.

Will the two wood colours match the photo

The pairing of pale olive and dark walnut is the same. The figure and tone will not match exactly, because both are natural woods and both vary board to board.

How long until it arrives

One to two weeks of processing, then free shipping inside the United States. Engraved orders take a few days longer.

What is in the box

• One Boarhelm 1095 boar spear, assembled with the olive and walnut haft
• One stitched vegetable tanned leather head sheath
• Care card and lifetime warranty note
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See the rest of the Viking spears, the glaives and polearms, our hunting knives, or read the guides.