Mirlaug Hand Forged 51CrV4 Spring Steel Blunt Arming Sword with Broad Fuller & Ball Tipped Cross | About 37 Inches Overall | Tan Cord Grip and Care Card | Training Gift | RK-3005

The Mirlaug is an arming sword, the single handed knightly sword of the high and late middle ages, built as a blunt trainer in 51CrV4 spring steel. The blade is broad and double edged with a fuller running most of its length, so there is width behind the edge and the sword still turns quickly. The cross is straight with small balls at the ends of the quillons, the pommel is a flattened sphere, and the grip is wrapped in tan cord for one hand.

This is the sword of the oldest fencing book we have. The Royal Armouries manuscript I.33, written around 1300, teaches sword and buckler with a blade of exactly this class, and its wards, its schutzen and its binds still work when you put a trainer like this in a beginner hand. The same sword answers to the single handed plays in the Liechtenauer glosses, to Andre Lignitzer sword and buckler, and to the Bolognese spada sola material from two centuries later.

If you are outfitting for sword and buckler, read what HEMA actually is and how to choose your first HEMA sword, then look through the HEMA arming swords. The broad fullered blades and the narrower unfullered ones in that group behave differently enough that the choice is worth making on purpose.

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 We do not publish a weight or a point of balance, because we will not print a number we have not taken.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 single handed sword, the buckler and I.33

Sword and buckler is the most complete surviving system for a blade like this and it is worth understanding before you buy. The buckler is not a shield you hide behind. It is bound to the sword hand, it covers the line the sword is already in, and the plays in I.33 are about getting a hand and a blade into a position from which the other fencer has no safe answer. A light single handed sword is what makes that work, because the sword must move with the buckler rather than behind it.

The later single handed material asks the same things of the sword. In the German glosses the sword alone plays run through the same crossings as the longsword, with the off hand free instead of on the grip. In the Bolognese tradition the spada sola work adds a long cut and a lot of footwork, and it wants a blade that will turn from a cut to a thrust inside one tempo. A broad blade on a short lever does that, provided the fuller has taken the dead weight out.

A broad fuller, the taper and where the give is

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 we use on cutting swords is the right answer for tatami and the wrong one for a blade that spends its life being struck. Softer steel gives, recovers and keeps going.

The fuller runs most of the blade on this one rather than stopping at the middle, which keeps the whole length light without losing the broad profile. That matters more on a single handed sword than on a longsword, because you have one arm to move it and no second hand to help the recovery. The taper is steady rather than sharp, so the sword keeps some width near the point and stays honest in a displacement.

Flex on an arming sword sits in the front third and the forte stays firm. You want it that way. A blade that bows near the hand feels dead in the bind and teaches bad habits, while a stiff forte lets you feel pressure through the cross and answer it. The blunted land is about 2 mm or more across along both edges, and the point is blunted and rounded rather than flared, so check it against your club rules before any 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. A wide fullered blade gives you the flat either side of the fuller for a rune line, and the flattened sphere pommel takes a single symbol neatly. 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. Nothing in the photographs carries a scale and these are ground by hand, so any figure printed here would be invented. What can be said is that a fullered blade of this length keeps the mass close enough to the hand that the sword changes line without a wind up, which is what sword and buckler asks for constantly.

The ball finials on the cross are not decoration alone. They give the quillon an end you can feel, which helps when the buckler hand and the sword hand are working together and you are not looking at either. Tan cord over the tang gives a dry bite when the hands sweat. Hold it lightly. A single handed sword held in a fist loses the edge alignment that this blade makes easy.

Care

Spring steel rusts. Wipe the blade before it goes in the bag, not after the weekend, because salt off the hands starts working on bare steel overnight. A thin film of oil on the steel and nothing on the cord is the whole job.

Check the peen on the pommel and the seat of the cross every few sessions. Sword and buckler puts a lot of lateral load into a cross, and movement shows up as a small knock at the end of a cut before anything is visibly loose. Sight the blade for a set that has not come back and file any contact burrs off the blunt land. The routine is set out 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 fuller is ground by hand, so its width and how far it runs shift a little between pieces, and the ball finials are finished individually rather than pressed to a die.

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 arming sword 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 not be taken near tatami.

Whether it suits sword and buckler

Yes, that is exactly what it is for. The length, the single hand grip and the broad fullered blade match the class of sword the I.33 manuscript teaches with.

How it compares with a longsword trainer

Shorter, lighter and worked with one hand. It teaches edge alignment and measure faster than a longsword does, which is why many clubs start beginners on a sword like this.

Whether it can be used in tournaments

Read the ruleset for your event. Sword and buckler events vary a great deal in what they accept, and this point is blunted and rounded rather than spatulated or flared.

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 Mirlaug blunt arming sword 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

Look across the HEMA arming swords, step sideways to the sideswords if you want a guard over the fingers, go up to the longswords for two hand work, or browse the HEMA sword hub. Start at the guides if you are undecided.

Close to this one

The nearest pieces by size and handling are Ashgrimm arming sword, about 37 inches overall, Faskvar arming sword, about 37 inches overall, Haldvane arming sword, about 37 inches overall and Skelvard sidesword, about 40 inches overall.

The rest of the group is in the HEMA arming sword category and across the HEMA sword hub, and the custom sword builder takes a custom order.