Anvilwake Hand Forged 1095 Steel Viking War Hammer | 24 Inch Haft | Rune Cut Head with Leather Wrapped Grip and Head Cover | Norse Warrior Gift | RK-1837

The Anvilwake is a war hammer with a long haft. The head is a solid block of forged 1095, left with the hammer texture still on its flanks and squared off to two flat striking faces, with a single line of Elder Futhark runes cut along one side. It is collared in polished steel where the hardwood haft passes through, and the lower third of the haft is wrapped in black leather. A brown leather cover for the head is included.

Blunt heads look primitive next to a sword and they are nothing of the kind. They are a direct answer to armour. A mail shirt is close to perfect against a cut, because the rings spread the force of an edge across a wide area and the edge never gets to bite. What mail does very poorly is stop the shock behind the blow. It has no rigidity and it has no standoff, so force arrives at the body more or less undiminished. A hammer ignores the problem the sword is trying to solve. It does not need to cut anything. It just needs to arrive. That is why maces, hammers and pollaxes rose steadily through the period when armour got better rather than fading away, and why the men who could afford the best harness in Europe carried a hammer alongside a sword rather than instead of one. Forged, hardened and hung by hand in the Czech Republic. You will find it filed with the Thor’s hammers, along with the rest of the Viking hammers.

Specifications

Why the head is textured and not polished flat

The dimpled, faceted surface on the sides of this head is not a finish applied afterwards. It is the record of the forging. Steel moves under a hammer, and every blow leaves a shallow dish where the face landed. Grinding all of that away is easy and quick, and it is what an industrial process does, because a smooth surface photographs well and costs nothing once the machine is set up. Leaving it means the head has to be forged accurately in the first place, since there is no grinding stage to hide behind, and it means the shape you are holding was arrived at hot rather than cut out of a block cold.

There is a functional side as well. Forging to shape rather than grinding to shape leaves the grain of the steel running around the form instead of being cut across, which is the same reason a forged wrench is stronger than a machined one. On a tool whose entire job is absorbing impact that matters more than it would on a blade.

The two striking faces are dressed flat and polished, with the edges taken off slightly so they do not chip. A square corner on a hardened striking face is where cracks begin.

The steel and the haft

The head is 1095 high carbon steel run at 54 to 58 HRC. That is deliberately not knife hard. A hammer face wants to be tough far more than it wants to be hard, because it takes repeated shock loads on its corners, and hardness bought past a certain point is paid for in brittleness. Somewhere in the mid fifties is where a striking tool lives.

The haft is a straight grained hardwood, fitted through the eye and wedged, with a polished steel collar at the head. The grain runs along the length rather than across it, which is not a detail you can compromise on. A haft with runout across the eye will fail under shock, usually at the worst moment. The leather wrap over the lower third gives you a grip that does not turn slick and marks out where the hand belongs.

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 hammer that means your line replaces the runes cut down the face, and there is room for a second short line on the opposite side if you ask for it. The engraving page shows how deep a cut sits in a forged surface.

Handling and balance

All of the weight is in the head and none of it is anywhere else, which makes a hammer the most honest thing there is about what it wants to do. It wants to go forward and down. At twenty four inches you have enough haft to generate real speed with one hand and enough to add a second hand at the bottom if you want more.

Balance sits right at the collar. Choke up under the head and it becomes a controllable tool for tapping and shaping. Hold it at the bottom of the leather and it becomes a long lever with a great deal of energy at the end of it. Do not swing this indoors and do not swing it near anyone. A hammer has no forgiving part.

Care

Wipe the head down and put a light film of oil over it, particularly across the polished faces where bare steel is exposed. The forged texture on the flanks holds oil well, which helps, but it also holds moisture if the hammer goes away wet, so dry it before the leather cover goes back on. Feed the leather wrap and cover with a neutral conditioner once or twice a year. Oil the hardwood haft with boiled linseed when it starts to look chalky, which also keeps the wood swelled in the eye and the head tight. If the head ever moves on the haft, stop using it and re-wedge it. Our page on steel care covers oiling and rust removal on forged surfaces.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This hammer is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The hammer texture on the flanks is literally the record of where a hammer landed, so it is different on every single one and could not be otherwise. The waist of the head is drawn in by eye. Hardwood is a natural material and its colour and grain run their own way. The leather takes stain unevenly. The head weight, the steel, the heat treat and the build are the same every time. The character is not. More on the Norse symbols and what they meant elsewhere on the site, along with what Mjolnir meant.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a display piece or can I actually use it

It is a genuine forged and hardened head on a wedged hardwood haft, so it is functional. It is not a substitute for a job site sledge and we would not ask it to drive steel stakes all day, but it will do what a hammer does.

How heavy is it

Heavier than it looks in a photograph. A solid forged block of that size carries most of the weight of the whole piece, and all of it is at one end.

Is the leather head cover included

It is. The fitted cover in the photograph ships with the hammer and keeps the faces from marking anything they are stored against.

Can I have my own runes cut into it

Yes. Your line replaces the one shown, and a second short line can go on the opposite face if you ask for it in the engraving option.

Will the forged texture rust

Bare high carbon steel will rust if it is neglected, and a textured surface gives rust more places to start. Oil it and it stays clean.

How long does shipping take

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

• Anvilwake war hammer with a forged 1095 high carbon steel head
• Hardwood haft with a dark leather grip wrap and a polished steel collar
• Fitted leather head cover
• Care card covering oiling, haft maintenance and storage
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See the other Thors hammers, the Viking axes, the wider Norse arms, or read the guides for how a head is hung and wedged so it stays tight.

Other pieces in this group

Also in this group is the Emberkey Thor hammer, pattern welded Damascus. Sitting beside it in the catalogue is the Thunderhide Thor hammer, 16 inches overall. Another in the same line is the Anvilcrown Thor hammer.

For a different piece from the same family, look at the Ravenbeak mace. Nothing here exactly right, build one to your own spec on the custom Norse arms page.