Ashenwheel Hand Forged 1095 Steel Disc Pommel Sword | 36 Inch Overall | Black Leather Grip and Etched Fuller Panel | Medieval Collector Gift | RK-1865

The Ashenwheel is a plain single handed sword of the type that carried a knight through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A straight steel cross, a black leather grip over cord risers, a broad steel disc pommel with a raised boss at its centre, and a fullered blade with a small etched panel set into the fuller above the guard. It ships in a brown leather scabbard built over a wooden core.

There is almost no decoration on this sword and that is the point. Surviving swords of this class are startlingly plain compared with what film has taught us to expect, because the money went into the blade and the heat treat rather than into gilding. What you are looking at is a shape that had been refined for two centuries and had stopped needing to explain itself. This one is forged, ground, fullered, hardened, etched and fitted in the Czech Republic.

Specifications

The wheel pommel and why it won

Every earlier European pommel is a lump. The Norse tea cosy, the brazil nut, the trilobate, all of them are essentially a mass of metal sitting on the end of the tang doing one job. The wheel is the first shape that does the job well and does it in the least metal. Spread the same weight out into a flat disc and you get the counterbalance without a fist sized block behind your hand, and the flat faces sit comfortably against the heel of the palm instead of digging into it.

The raised boss in the centre of the disc is structural. It thickens the pommel exactly where the tang passes through and gets peened, which is the highest stress point in the whole assembly. Everything outside the boss can then be thinned down for weight. It also gives an engraver a raised field to work into, which is why so many surviving wheel pommels carry a cross, a shield or a maker mark right in that circle.

Once the wheel appeared it stayed for four hundred years with almost no change, which in swords is close to unheard of. That is usually the sign that a shape has stopped being a compromise.

Steel, and how the scabbard is built

The blade is 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC, polished bright. The fuller is the shallow channel down the centre, which lightens the blade where the weight does nothing and keeps its stiffness where it counts, on the same principle that makes an I beam stiffer than a solid bar of the same weight. It is not a blood groove and never was.

The scabbard is worth its own paragraph because most people never think about it. It is not a leather tube. Two thin slats of wood are shaped to the exact section of the blade, hollowed so the blade sits inside without touching, and glued edge to edge into a shell. That shell is then covered in leather, which shrinks slightly as it dries and clamps the whole thing tight. The blade is held by friction at the mouth alone, so nothing rubs along the polish, and if the sword is ever inverted the wood holds it rather than the leather. Building it this way is the difference between a scabbard that protects a blade and one that slowly sands 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 etched panel in the fuller is that design, so an inscription is cut there in its place. The raised boss on the pommel is the other traditional spot and it will take a small mark or a single rune. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

Around two and a half pounds with the balance about four inches ahead of the cross. It is a cutting sword and it behaves like one, falling into a cut and recovering quickly because the disc is doing real work at the other end. The cord risers under the grip leather stop the hand travelling forward, which matters more on a plain cylindrical grip than people expect, and the flat faces of the pommel give the palm a clear reference for where the edge is pointing.

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

A bright polish shows every fingerprint and 1095 has no meaningful chromium, so wipe the blade after handling and keep a light film of mineral oil on it. Work a little oil into the etched panel. Do not store the sword in the scabbard for months, because the leather draws damp inward and the wood core will hold it against the steel. Feed the grip and the scabbard with a leather balm once or twice a year and keep both away from radiators, which dry out a wooden core and can open a seam. Our steel care page covers oiling and early spotting.

Made in the Czech Republic

This is a handmade piece from the Czech Republic, made in a workshop that still forges, grinds and finishes by hand instead of stamping parts out. The smiths there have kept the older way of working, and the wood, horn and leather are shaped and fitted by hand as well. Two pieces of the same design will never be identical, and that is part of what you are buying.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We handle the import ourselves, look over every piece when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done in the United States after the piece arrives, so your design goes on before we send it out.

A note on handmade variation

This sword is hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The exact diameter and thickness of the disc, the height of the central boss, the depth of the etched panel, the tension of the cord risers and the tone of the black leather all vary because each is worked by hand. The dimensions, the steel and the build stay the same every time. The character does not.

Frequently asked questions

Why is this sword so plain?

Because the surviving originals are. Money in this period went into the blade and the heat treat rather than into decoration, and we would rather be accurate than gaudy.

Does it arrive sharp?

It comes with a clean cutting edge. Say the word in your order notes and we will finish it blunt for display.

Is the scabbard wood lined?

Yes. Two shaped wooden slats form the core and the leather is fitted over them, so the blade never rubs on leather.

Can I hang this on a wall?

Yes, on a horizontal mount or a vertical stand. Keep it out of a damp room and out of direct sun.

Is it usable for sparring?

No. It is a hand finished collector and display sword and must not be struck against another blade.

When will it ship?

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

What is in the box

• One Ashenwheel disc pommel sword in 1095 high carbon steel
• One brown leather over wood scabbard
• A light protective oil film on the blade
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in arming swords, swords and sword stands and displays, with typology notes in the guides.