Drakvend Hand Forged 51CrV4 Spring Steel Blunt Longsword Trainer with Flat Diamond Blade & Wheel Pommel | About 49 Inches Overall | Navy Cord Grip and Care Card | Club Gift | RK-3004

The Drakvend is a two hand longsword built as a blunt trainer in 51CrV4 spring steel, and the blade is the point of it. There is no fuller. The section is a flat diamond running the length of the blade, with a central ridge that keeps the steel stiff and a taper that carries the profile down to a blunted point. The cross is straight, the pommel is a wheel with a raised boss on each face, and the grip is wrapped in navy cord long enough for two hands with room to work.

A diamond section longsword is a thrusting sword that still cuts, and it is the shape the later fifteenth century moved towards as armour improved. Fenced in the Liechtenauer tradition it rewards the plays that live at the point. Absetzen, the winden that takes the bind and puts the point back on line, and the half sword grip for anything close all work better with a rigid blade under them. A fullered blade flexes away from a hard thrust. This one does not want to.

Read our explanation of sword flex and the piece on blunts against sharps before you commit, then compare it across the HEMA longswords. The difference between a broad fullered blunt and a stiff diamond blunt is the single biggest choice in this part of the catalogue and it is worth ten minutes of reading.

Specifications

Every length is given as about, because this is ground and fitted by hand. We do not publish a weight or a point of balance, because we will not print a number we have not taken.

The diamond section longsword and the bind

Every longsword play ends up in a crossing, and what you can do from that crossing depends on how much the blade under your hands will move. With a stiff diamond section the answer is very little, and that is the advantage. When you set aside a thrust and wind at the same time, the point holds where you put it. When you take the bind strong and run the point around to the other side, the sword goes where the hands go rather than trailing a beat behind them.

The same stiffness is why this profile suits half sword work. Take the blade in the left hand at the middle and the sword becomes a short rigid spear, which is exactly the answer to an opponent who has closed the distance. Mortschlag work is not something we recommend on a trainer, but the grip that leads to it is normal drilling and this section takes it. Where a diamond blade asks more of you is in the cut, because there is less width behind the edge than on a broad fullered blade.

Why this blade is stiffer and how the edge is blunted

This is 51CrV4 spring steel hardened to 49 to 52 HRC. Spring steel is chosen because it bends and returns instead of taking a set or snapping under a hard bind. The 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC on our cutting swords is right for an edge that goes through tatami and wrong for a blade hit a thousand times a month. Hardness buys edge retention and costs you toughness, and a trainer needs the toughness.

A central ridge stiffens a blade the way a rib stiffens a panel. Take the fuller out and put a diamond section in, and the same mass resists bending far better, which is why the flex here sits in the strong tier and lives only in the last few inches. You will not see this blade bow through the middle on a thrust the way a feder does, so control at the point is on you and not on the steel. The blunted land along both edges is about 2 mm or more across.

Say it plainly. Many longsword tournaments ban blunt longswords and allow only purpose built feders or sword shaped feders, and a stiff diamond blunt is exactly the sword those rules were written about. This is a drilling, technique and controlled sparring sword for a club that sets its own rules, and it is a very good one. If you want a blade for an open tournament, buy a feder and read the ruleset for that event.

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 or the grip. The flat between the ridge and the edge takes a line of runes well, and the raised boss on the wheel pommel is the usual place for a single symbol. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49, all cut in the United States after the piece has landed and been inspected.

If you would rather have your own design 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. More on the engraving page.

Handling and balance

No weight and no point of balance from us. The photographs carry no scale, these are ground by hand, and a printed figure would be a guess. What is fair to say is that a diamond section of this length distributes its steel more evenly than a fullered blade, so the sword feels more alive in the point and less eager in the cut. That is a preference, not a virtue.

The navy cord grip is a full two hand length, which gives the left hand somewhere to sit above the pommel and gives you the lever for winden. The wheel pommel with its boss is easy to find by feel, so the heel of the hand can ride it during a long thrust without looking. Cord grips bite when wet, which is the practical reason clubs like them. Expect the sword to punish a tight grip more than a loose one.

Care

Spring steel rusts. Wipe the blade at the end of the session and oil it thinly before it goes in the bag, because salt from the hands works overnight on bare steel. Nothing needs to go on the cord.

Look at the peen on the wheel pommel every few sessions. A two hand sword loads the pommel every time you wind, and the first sign of movement is a small click at the top of the stroke rather than an obvious wobble. Sight along the blade for a bend that has not come back, and take contact burrs off the blunt land with a fine file. The full routine is in the care guide.

Made in the Czech Republic

Made by hand in the Czech Republic and imported by Ransack Viking. Nothing here is drop shipped out of an importer catalogue straight to a customer. Every one is checked for hilt tightness, pommel seating and blade straightness at our North Babylon, New York warehouse, and ships from there. Shipping in the United States is free, returns run for seven days, and the lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

We do not name the workshop and we do not print a town on the box. The same hands make the whole run, the blades reach us in batches rather than by the container, and anything that turns up with a loose hilt or a bend in it goes back. More on the country of origin page.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand forged. It is not machine made, not cast and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The ridge is ground by hand, so it wanders a fraction from centre on some pieces, and the navy cord wrap is laid to feel rather than to a fixed count of turns.

Grain in the wood, the turn of a finial and the shade of the cord all move a little from piece to piece, and lengths are given as about because a hand made blade is ground to a shape rather than to a tolerance band. None of that is a defect. What is covered, for as long as you own it, is a failure in the forging, the grind, the heat treat or the fittings.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this longsword is sharp

No. It is a blunt trainer with a flat land of about 2 mm or more along both edges and a blunted point. It is not for cutting and should never be used on tatami.

Whether it can be entered in a tournament

Usually not. A great many longsword events accept only feders or sword shaped feders and ban blunt longswords outright. Read the ruleset for your event before assuming anything.

How it compares with a fullered blunt

It is stiffer, better on the point and less generous in the cut. A fullered blade gives you width behind the edge and more flex. Neither is better, they suit different parts of the art.

Whether the lack of a fuller is a shortcut

No. A diamond section is a deliberate late medieval answer to better armour, and grinding a clean central ridge the length of a blade is more work than cutting a fuller, not less.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. Nothing in the HEMA range ships with a scabbard. You get the sword, oiled and wrapped.

Whether it can be engraved

Yes. Runes, a name, a date or your own design, cut in the United States after the piece arrives and is inspected. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39, a family crest is $49.

What is in the box

• The Drakvend blunt longsword trainer, one piece, full tang.
• A light film of protective oil on the blade for the journey.
• A printed care and storage card with the wipe down routine.
• Your lifetime warranty record against defects in the forging, grind and fittings.

Explore the range

Compare it through the HEMA longswords, look at the feders if you need a tournament blade, step down to the arming swords for single handed work, or browse the HEMA sword hub. Everything we have written on choosing sits in the guides.

Other pieces in this group

In this part of the line you will also find Draugmoor longsword, about 49 inches overall, Valkspire hand and a half, about 48 inches overall, Nattvarn hand and a half, about 48 inches overall, Rundholm montante, about 66 inches overall and Vandrekt feder, about 49 inches overall.

Everything else sits in the HEMA longsword category and in the HEMA sword hub, and the custom sword builder builds to your own numbers.