Vinehewn Hand Forged 1095 Steel Engraved Viking Sword | 36 Inch Overall | Brass Fitted Scabbard and Cord Wrapped Grip | Norse Collector Gift | RK-1858

The Vinehewn carries a panel of vine and beast engraving cut into the flat just above the guard, the long looping tendrils and single narrow animal of the last great Norse ornament style. The guard is a downswept steel bar with rounded terminals, the grip is brown cord wound over a shaped wooden core, and the pommel is a broad mushroom form peened over the tang. It ships in a black scabbard fitted with a brass throat and a brass chape.

That engraving style has a name and a place. It is called Urnes, after the stave church at Urnes on the Sognefjord in Norway, where carved portal panels from the eleventh century show a slim quadruped fighting its way through a mass of thin looping stems. It is the last thing Norse art did before Romanesque swept in from the south, and it is the most confident thing it ever did. This sword is forged, ground, hardened, engraved and fitted in the Czech Republic.

Specifications

The Urnes beast and what it is doing

Look closely at the panel and you can pick the animal out of the tangle. There is a head with an almond eye near one end, a long neck, and a body that narrows to almost nothing before it disappears back into the stems. Everything else is tendril, and the tendrils bite the beast as often as the beast bites them. That is the whole grammar of the style. A single creature caught in a web of its own outline, drawn with lines that never thicken and never stop.

Earlier Norse ornament filled its fields. Mammen work is fat and busy, Ringerike stretches out into lobed leaves but still crowds the space. Urnes empties it. The strands get thinner, the loops get longer, and the negative space between them becomes as important as the line itself. Anyone who has tried to cut it into steel will tell you that the empty space is the difficult part, because a strand that wanders even slightly turns the whole panel into noise.

It sits just above the guard, in the section of the blade that flexes least and cuts least, which is exactly where Norse and Frankish smiths put their inlays and inscriptions for the same practical reason.

Steel, cord and brass

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel quenched and tempered to 54 to 58 HRC, taken to a bright polish so the cut engraving reads as shadow against light. The narrow fuller lightens the blade through its length without softening it, on the same I beam principle that keeps a fullered sword faster than a flat one of the same weight.

The grip is cord wound over a shaped wooden core rather than plain leather. Cord gives a harder, more positive key under the palm, and it stays grippy when a hand is warm. The pommel is peened rather than threaded, which is the joint that gets tighter with age. On the scabbard the brass throat protects the mouth where the blade goes in and out, and the brass chape protects the tip, which is the part that meets the ground first every time a scabbard is set down. Brass is used for both because it is softer than the blade and will not score it.

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 sword the Urnes vine panel is that design, so a rune inscription takes its place rather than sitting beneath it. See the engraving page for what fits in the panel.

Handling and balance

At around two and a half pounds with the balance roughly four and a half inches ahead of the cross, this is a touch more blade forward than a short bladed Viking sword, which suits a thirty inch blade. It falls into a cut willingly and the broad mushroom pommel brings it back. The downswept guard is not only shape. Curving the terminals toward the blade catches and turns anything sliding down toward the hand.

This is a hand finished collector and display sword. It is not sold as full contact sparring equipment and should not be struck against another blade.

Care

Keep a thin film of mineral oil on the blade and wipe it after handling, since a bright polish shows every fingerprint and 1095 has no meaningful chromium. Work oil into the cut engraving with a soft brush so moisture cannot sit in the strands. Brass will dull to a warm gold on its own, which most people prefer, and a metal polish will bring it back if you do not. Do not store the sword in the scabbard long term. Feed the leather once or twice a year. Our steel care page covers all of it in more detail.

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 Memphis, Tennessee. 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 sword is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Hand cut Urnes work never repeats exactly, so the loops and the beast in your panel will be your own. The tension of the cord wrap, the tone of the brass, the exact curve of the guard terminals and the hammer texture under the polish all vary. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the animal in the engraving?

It is the Urnes beast, the slim quadruped of eleventh century Norse ornament, shown fighting its way through looping stems.

Is the engraving cut or etched on?

It is cut into the steel by hand, so it has real depth and holds a shadow at an angle.

Is the blade sharp?

It arrives with a clean cutting edge. Say the word in your order notes if you want it left blunt for display.

Will the brass tarnish?

Yes, slowly, to a warmer gold. That is normal and most owners leave it. A brass polish reverses it in minutes.

Is this suitable for sparring?

No. It is a hand finished collector and display sword, not sparring equipment.

How long is the wait?

One to two weeks of processing, then free shipping inside the United States.

What is in the box

• One Vinehewn engraved Viking sword in 1095 high carbon steel
• One black leather over wood scabbard with brass throat and chape
• A light protective oil film on the blade
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in Viking swords, arming swords and swords, with Norse ornament notes in the guides.