Valkspire Hand Forged 51CrV4 Hand and a Half Longsword with Squared Ricasso & Fishtail Pommel | About 48 Inches Overall | Leather and Cord Grip and Care Card | Sparring Gift | RK-3012

Two features make this one different from a plain blunt. The blade opens into a squared ricasso where it leaves the cross, a broad flat section with parallel sides and no edge on it at all, and the pommel is a fishtail, flared wide across the end rather than turned into a wheel. Both are period shapes and both change how the sword behaves in the hands.

Above the ricasso the blade narrows into a normal blunt profile and runs out to a rolled tip. The cross is a straight bar. The grip is tan leather with cord risers underneath, which gives the hands something to index against when one of them slides. It is a hand and a half length, so the rear hand can sit on the grip or drop back onto the pommel.

Before you decide between this and a feder, read what a feder actually is and blunt against sharp training swords. The rest of the two handed steel sits in HEMA longswords.

Specifications

The squared ricasso, half swording and the close fight

A ricasso is the length of blade just above the cross that carries no edge. On the longswords of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it exists for one reason: so a hand can be put on the blade. That is halbschwert, half swording, and it is not an exotic trick. It is what the manuscripts show you doing the moment the fight closes and there is no room left to swing.

With the left hand on the ricasso the sword becomes a short, rigid bar you can steer with both arms. The point goes where you push it, which is how the thrusts into gaps in armour are made, and the cross and pommel become hooks for a mortschlag or for winding an opponent’s blade out of line. A squared ricasso with parallel flats gives the gloved hand something honest to hold. A round one rolls.

This is also a blunt longsword, so the usual caution applies. Many longsword tournaments now exclude blunts from the longsword pool and accept only purpose built feders or sword shaped feders, so read the gear requirements of any event before you travel with it. For half swording drill, for grappling at the sword and for club free play it is exactly the tool. Fence it in gloves, mask, gorget and a rated jacket.

Blade section, edge land and a point you can thrust with

Above the ricasso the section is a flattened diamond with an edge land ground flat on both sides. The land runs comfortably past the 2 mm minimum that club and tournament gear lists ask for on a longsword trainer, and the corners are broken so there is no burr sitting there waiting to catch a glove or a jacket.

The tip is rolled and flared to about 15 mm across. That is the shape the Berlin HEMA Cup gear requirements describe when they call for a spatulated or rolled tip with a minimum diameter of 1.5 cm, and the reason is simple physics: the same thrust spread across a wide flat button does far less than the same thrust concentrated on a point.

Steel is 51CrV4 hardened to 49 to 52 HRC rather than the 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC we put on cutting swords. Spring steel at this hardness bends and returns instead of taking a set or snapping under a hard bind, which is the whole argument for using it in a sparring blade. Flex sits in the medium tier. The market bands run light around 15 to 21 lb, medium around 25 to 29 lb, strong or tournament grade around 30 to 43 lb, and stiff for harnischfechten. We give the tier rather than a figure, because we do not put every blade on a jig and a number we have not taken is not a specification.

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 squared ricasso is the obvious place on this one. It is a broad flat with no edge and it holds a rune line or a date better than any other part of the sword.

Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49, and the work is done in the United States after the piece has landed and passed inspection. 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

The fishtail pommel spreads across the end of the grip rather than sitting as a ball behind it, so the heel of the rear hand has a wide surface to push against. Fencers who use a lot of pommel work notice it straight away. It also puts the counterweight slightly further back than a wheel of the same mass would, which keeps the blade lively at the point.

The cord risers under the leather do the indexing. Slide the rear hand back and it stops where the riser is, without you looking down or losing the true edge. We do not publish a weight or a point of balance for this piece. There is no scale in the photograph, every one comes off the hammer a little different, and a printed number would be a guess in a suit.

Care

Wipe the blade down after every session and put a thin film of oil on before it goes back in the bag. The ricasso takes glove wear and sweat more than the rest of the blade does, so give it the rag first.

Take any raised burr on the edge land back flat with a fine file and finish with wet and dry paper, and do not chase it into a sharp edge. Check the cross and the fishtail pommel for movement every few sessions, because half swording loads the hilt in ways ordinary cutting does not. The full routine for oiling, rust and long storage is in our 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.

A fishtail pommel has to be peened square or it sits crooked on the tang, so pommel alignment gets a close look when the crate is opened, along with blade straightness and the fit of the cross against the ricasso.

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 flare of the fishtail is filed by hand, so no two spread exactly alike, the width of the ricasso wanders a little across a batch, and the cord risers under the leather sit where the hand that wrapped them put them rather than on a measured centre.

None of that touches the standard. Every one leaves the workshop straight, tight and blunted the same way, and anything that fails the check at the warehouse never gets boxed.

Frequently asked questions

What the ricasso is actually for

It is the unsharpened length of blade above the cross that lets you put a hand on the steel. Half swording uses it constantly, and a squared ricasso with flat parallel sides holds a gloved hand far better than a rounded one.

Whether half swording is safe in sparring

It is safe in drill with a partner who knows it is coming and in free play where both fencers have agreed the rules. It closes measure fast and puts hands near the cross, so it needs good gloves and a club that teaches it properly.

Whether this is allowed at longsword tournaments

Read the ruleset of the event. Many longsword tournaments now accept only purpose built feders or sword shaped feders and exclude blunts from the pool. We will not call any piece tournament legal without naming the ruleset it passes.

Why the pommel is shaped like a fishtail

It is a period form that spreads the counterweight across the end of the grip. The practical effect is a wide surface for the heel of the rear hand and a slightly livelier point than a compact wheel gives.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. This ships as the sword alone and we do not sell a scabbard for it. Keep it in a padded sword bag with the blade oiled.

Whether the blade can be sharpened

Do not sharpen it. 51CrV4 at 49 to 52 HRC is a sparring hardness and an edge on it would hold badly while turning a safe trainer into something else.

What is in the box

• The Valkspire hand and a half longsword with its squared ricasso and blunted edge.
• A protective film of oil on the steel, which comes off with a rag.
• A printed card covering oiling, burrs and storage between sessions.
• The lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind and the fittings.

Explore the range

There is more two handed steel in HEMA longswords, purpose built flexers in feders, messers in HEMA messers, and the whole training line under HEMA swords. The written side sits in the guides.

Other pieces in this group

In this part of the line you will also find Nattvarn hand and a half, about 48 inches overall, Vernholt hand and a half, about 47 inches overall, Drakvend longsword, about 49 inches overall, Vulkbrand flame bladed greatsword, about 66 inches overall and Vindlaur feder, about 50 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.