Staveguard Hand Made Rune Tooled Leather Sword Scabbard with Steel Chape & Matching Belt | Fits Blades to 31 Inches | Wool Lined Wooden Core | Viking Kit Gift | RK-1700

This is a full length sword scabbard sold on its own, built over a shaped wooden core and covered in tan vegetable tanned leather, with a line of Elder Futhark runes tooled along the face, brass rivets at the throat and a fitted steel chape at the tip. It comes with a matching leather belt and buckle, so it arrives ready to wear rather than as a case to lean in a corner.

Almost every sword scabbard from the Viking age and the middle ages was built the same way, and it is not the way most people imagine. The structural part is not the leather, it is a pair of thin wooden laths hollowed to the shape of the blade and glued together around it. The leather is a cover over that core. Inside, the wood was very often lined with sheepskin or with unwashed wool left with its lanolin, which does two jobs at once. It grips the blade so the scabbard can be worn upside down without the sword falling out, and the lanolin continuously oils the steel while it sits there. It is a genuinely elegant solution and it was standard practice for a thousand years.

Each scabbard is cut, formed, covered, tooled and stitched by hand in our Memphis workshop, and the belt is cut and buckled here at the bench. It ships with a care card and a tub of leather balm.

Specifications

What the chape is for and why the mouth grips

The steel cap at the bottom is the chape, and it is not decoration. The tip of a scabbard is where the point of the blade sits, where the whole thing touches the ground when you stand or kneel, and where a worn scabbard wears through first. A chape armours that zone. Excavated scabbard chapes are one of the most commonly recovered sword fittings precisely because the leather and wood around them rotted away and the metal did not.

At the other end, the throat is deliberately snug. A scabbard should hold a sword by friction at the mouth, not by a strap and not by gravity. The wool lining inside the wooden core does most of that work, gripping the flats of the blade along its length. That is why a well made scabbard makes a soft sound when a sword is drawn and a badly made one rattles. It is also why you should never force a blade that is fractionally too wide. You will compress the lining permanently and lose the grip for good.

The leather, the core and the tannage

The cover is vegetable tanned cowhide, tanned with bark and wood tannins over weeks rather than chrome tanned in a drum over hours. Two things follow from that. It can be wet formed, which is how it is pulled tight around a wooden core and dried holding that shape, and it is chemically kind to steel. Chrome tanned leather carries residual salts that will pit a carbon blade left against it, which is exactly what a scabbard does all day.

The core is shaped wood, thin and hollowed to the blade section. Wood is used rather than a solid leather tube because wood holds its geometry, does not collapse when the scabbard is sat on, and protects the edge from being dulled every time the sword goes in. A scabbard that is only leather will flex onto the edge and blunt it slowly.

The natural tan colour has nothing over it but a light finish. It will darken with light and handling into a deeper honey and then a russet brown, unevenly, which is the patina people buy natural leather for.

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.

Leather is the best material we work for this, because it is tooled damp and holds a crisp impression once dry. This scabbard already carries a rune line on the face, so a chosen inscription replaces that line rather than sitting next to it. There is room for a longer phrase than the standard line if you want one. See the engraving page for lettering and lead time.

Fit and sizing

Measure your sword before ordering. This scabbard takes a straight double edged blade up to about 31 inches long and about 2 inches wide at the shoulders. Measure blade length from the front face of the crossguard to the point, and width at the widest part of the blade. A blade shorter than 31 inches will sit fine, it will simply not reach the chape. A blade wider than 2 inches will not go in, and forcing it will split the core.

The belt is a wrap and buckle design that threads through the scabbard suspension, so it can be set to hang at whatever cant you prefer, from near vertical to a strong diagonal. Most people wear a sword scabbard canted so the hilt sits forward of the hip and the chape trails behind, because a vertical scabbard hits the back of your leg with every stride and catches on doorways when you turn. The belt fits waists up to about 44 inches and can be shortened with a knife and a punch if you need it smaller.

Care

Feed the leather two or three times a year with the balm supplied or any neutral conditioner. Work a thin coat in with your fingers, leave it an hour, buff it off. Avoid heavy greases and mink oil in quantity, because they soften vegetable tanned leather and a soft scabbard loses the shape that holds the blade.

If it gets wet, dry it slowly at room temperature away from any heat source, with the sword out of it. Never dry leather on a radiator. Do not store a carbon steel blade in any scabbard for years at a time. The wool lining helps, but wood and leather both hold moisture and long storage is how good blades quietly corrode. Take the sword out every few months, oil it and inspect it. There is more on blade protection in steel care.

Made in Memphis

This scabbard is made at the bench in Memphis, Tennessee. We shape and hollow the core, line it, case and form the leather, tool the runes, saddle stitch the back seam, fit the chape and cut the belt here. Nothing is drop shipped from an importer catalogue with a stamp on the end. Making a scabbard properly is slow, so current lead time is one to two weeks before it leaves us, and shipping inside the United States is free. It carries a lifetime warranty against defects in the making, with no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

This scabbard is hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Leather is a natural material and every hide differs in grain, pore pattern, small healed scars and the exact depth of the natural tan. The runes are tooled by hand, so stroke weight and spacing carry a human line. The wooden core is shaped to the blade by hand and the wool lining is packed by feel. Edge burnish takes a different sheen depending on how the fibres lie. The dimensions, the fit range, the materials and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Does it come with a sword?

No. This listing is the scabbard and belt on their own, sold for a sword you already have or one bought separately.

Will it fit my sword?

If your blade is straight, double edged, up to about 31 inches long and up to about 2 inches wide, yes. Measure first and message us with the figures if you are close to the limit.

Is it lined?

Yes. There is a wool lining inside the wooden core. It grips the blade so the scabbard holds the sword by friction, and the natural lanolin in the wool helps protect the steel.

Is the belt included?

Yes. A matching tan leather belt with a steel roller buckle ships with the scabbard and threads through the suspension.

Can I have my own runes on it instead?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page. Your chosen line replaces the standard rune line on the face rather than being added beside it.

How long does shipping take?

Making time is one to two weeks and United States shipping is free. Custom tooling adds a few days.

What is in the box

• One hand made leather sword scabbard over a wool lined wooden core with a steel chape
• Matching tan leather belt with steel roller buckle
• Small tub of leather balm
• Care card covering feeding, drying and long term blade storage
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the making
• Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Browse the rest of the scabbards and sheaths, the Viking swords that fit them and the accessories, or read the guides for more on scabbard cores, linings and leather care.