Sturvang Hand Forged 51CrV4 Sabre Trainer with Three Bar Guard & Rolled Safety Tip | About 37 Inches Overall | Wire Wound Over Leather Grip and Care Card | Fencing Gift | RK-3038

The Sturvang is a single handed sabre trainer built on the three bar hilt, the pattern that ran through European cavalry and infantry sabres from the late eighteenth century onward. A knuckle bow leaves the front of the guard and two more bars branch off it to cover the outside of the hand, so the fingers sit inside a cage of steel without the weight of a full basket.

The blade is curved and single edged, with a fuller that runs from the hilt and stops well short of the point. The last stretch of the blade is solid steel with no groove in it at all. That is a deliberate piece of design rather than an unfinished fuller, and the reason for it is in the second section below.

This is a blunt trainer with a rolled safety tip, not a cutting sabre and not a decorative piece. If you are new to the form, read the HEMA sabre guide and then HEMA tournament gear rules before you buy, because tip requirements are stricter on sabre than on almost anything else. The rest of the curved steel sits in HEMA sabres. The practice dussack belongs in the same single edged family and is covered in the dussack guide.

Specifications

Take these as the shape of the piece. Everything here is finished by hand, so read the lengths as close rather than exact.

The three bar sabre in military sabre and cutting practice

The three bar hilt was the answer to a simple problem. A cavalry trooper needed the hand covered, and a full basket was heavy, hot and slow to draw from a scabbard on horseback. Three bars gave most of the protection for a fraction of the metal. The pattern spread across Europe and stayed in service for well over a century, which is why it is the hilt most people picture when they hear the word sabre.

In modern practice this is the shape used for nineteenth century military sabre, for the Italian and Hungarian schools, and for the cutting systems that grew out of them. The single hand does everything. The off hand sits behind the back or on the hip, so the whole system is built around the reach, the recovery and the moulinet of one arm. That is a very different body than longsword and it takes a while to stop wanting the second hand.

Because there is no nagel anywhere on this hilt and no slab scale grip, it should not be confused with the messer family. Messers and dussacks solve hand protection with a stud through the tang and wooden scales riveted on. A sabre solves it with bars welded and fitted around the hand, and a grip that is wrapped rather than riveted. The two families look superficially similar in a photograph and handle nothing alike.

Spring steel, the curve and where the fuller stops

The blade is 51CrV4 spring steel hardened to 49 to 52 HRC. That is the choice across every blunt in this line for one reason: spring steel bends and returns instead of taking a set or snapping under a hard bind. A sabre blade sees more lateral load than most, because parries in the sabre schools are taken on the flat and along the edge at angles a longsword rarely meets.

The curve is shallow and even. It moves the cutting section forward of the hand, which is what gives a sabre its draw cut, and it keeps the point low enough that a thrust is still available without changing the grip. A deeper curve would cut harder and thrust worse. This one sits in the middle, which is where most surviving service patterns sit.

Now the fuller. It runs from the hilt and stops well short of the point, leaving the last stretch of blade solid. Stopping the fuller leaves the forward section stiffer and heavier than it would otherwise be, which steadies the point through a cut and keeps the blade from whipping when it is thrown out at speed. It also puts the flex where you want it, in the middle of the blade rather than at the tip.

The tip is rolled and flared to about 15 mm across. That matters more on sabre than elsewhere. The Berlin HEMA Cup gear requirements ask for spatulated or rolled tips of at least 1.5 cm in diameter and do not permit merely rounded tips on rapier and sabre. Flex sits in the light tier, which is the usual place for sabre, where a blade is expected to give early and often.

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. On a sabre the obvious place for a rune line is the flat of the blade just forward of the guard, though the backstrap will take a short symbol if you would rather keep the blade clean.

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

It is light in the hand for its length, because a single handed sabre has to be. The three bars add a little weight outside the hand, and that weight sits behind the grip rather than in front of it, so the point stays quicker than the overall length suggests. Expect it to feel faster than a longsword and less forgiving of a loose wrist.

The guard sets your hand for you. Once the fingers are inside the bars there is only one comfortable way to hold it, with the thumb up the backstrap for control and the last two fingers doing most of the gripping. That thumb position is what drives the moulinet. If you find yourself squeezing with the whole hand, the blade will stop turning cleanly and every cut will land flat.

We do not publish a weight or a point of balance for this piece. There is no scale in the photograph, every one is finished by hand and a figure that is true for one is false for the next. The honest version is that it handles like a service sabre rather than a fencing foil.

Care

51CrV4 is not stainless and the blade is bare steel. Wipe it after every session, because sweat gets everywhere on a single handed piece, and keep a light film of oil on the blade between uses. Mineral oil or a light gun oil is all it needs.

The three bar guard has corners that trap moisture where the bars meet the knuckle bow and where they land on the guard plate. Dry those junctions properly rather than wiping the flat and calling it done. That is where a neglected sabre starts to rust first.

The wire binding over leather is the part that wears. Check it for loose turns every few months and stop using the piece if a wire end lifts, because it will cut a glove and then a hand. Treat the leather underneath once or twice a year with a leather balm and let the grip breathe after a session instead of sealing it in a bag. The full method is in the knife 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 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. Bars are bent and fitted by hand, so the exact sweep of the two side bars is a little different on every hilt and the gap between them will not be identical piece to piece. The curve of the blade is set on the anvil and is close rather than mathematical. The wire binding is wound by hand and its pitch varies. None of that is a fault and none of it changes how the sabre behaves.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this sabre is sharp

No. It is a blunt trainer with a flat edge land of about 2.5 mm and a rolled, flared tip. It is not a cutting sabre and we will not sharpen it on request.

Whether the tip meets tournament requirements

The tip is rolled and flared to about 15 mm across, which matches the Berlin HEMA Cup requirement of a spatulated or rolled tip of at least 1.5 cm. Other events set their own rules, so read the ruleset you are entering under.

Why the fuller stops before the point

To leave the forward section stiffer and heavier. That steadies the point through a cut and moves the flex into the middle of the blade where it belongs.

Whether it has a nagel

No. A nagel belongs to the messer and dussack family. This hilt covers the hand with a knuckle bow and two side bars instead, and the grip is wire over leather rather than riveted scales.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. Nothing in this line ships with a scabbard. It arrives wrapped for transit with a care card in the box.

Whether it can be engraved

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

What is in the box

• One Sturvang sabre trainer, hand made in the Czech Republic.
• A cloth wrap for transit.
• A care and storage card.
• Your warranty and returns information.

Explore the range

The rest of the curved steel is in HEMA sabres, the wider catalogue of the same family is in sabres, the whole training line is in HEMA swords and the thrust oriented pieces are in HEMA rapiers. Every guide we have written sits in the guides hub.

Also in this part of the catalogue

Sitting alongside it in the catalogue are Kaldrast hanger sabre, about 36 inches overall, Kjeldhar stirrup hilt sabre, about 36 inches overall, Ostrevak steel dussack, about 31 inches overall, Hallvarn sharp bauernwehr, about 24 inches overall and Orlunde spadroon, about 38 inches overall.

See the HEMA sabre category and the HEMA sword hub for the full spread, and the custom sword builder if none of them is right.