Rundholm Hand Forged 51CrV4 Montante Greatsword with Leather Wrapped Ricasso & Parierhaken | About 66 Inches Overall | Long Two Hand Grip and Free US Shipping | Club Gift | RK-3033

The Rundholm is a montante, the Iberian two hand greatsword that a single fencer used to hold a doorway, clear a street or guard a person against several opponents at once. The blade is straight and double edged and runs to about 50 inches on its own. Above the guard sits a ricasso wrapped in leather, and above that a pair of parierhaken, the forward hooks that stop a sliding blade before it reaches the hands.

The guard carries long straight quillons and a side ring on one face, so the hand that grips the ricasso has cover of its own. The pommel is a faceted pear, large enough to balance a blade of this length. This one is blunted for training rather than sharpened, in 51CrV4 spring steel, so a club can actually drill the rules with it rather than hang it on a wall.

A montante is a serious piece of kit and it is worth understanding before you buy. Read what HEMA is and how to choose your first HEMA sword first. The rest of the two handed steel sits in HEMA longswords.

Specifications

The montante and the work of one blade against many

The montante is not a battlefield sword in the way a pike or a halberd is. It is a bodyguard sword and a civic sword. The Iberian masters who wrote for it, Diogo Gomes de Figueiredo in the seventeenth century above all, set out rules rather than plays: what to do alone against several, how to hold a narrow street, how to protect a person walking beside you, how to work in an open square.

The technique is built on continuous motion. The blade never really stops, because a montante that stops is a montante someone walks past. The fencer moves in long lines and wide arcs, changing the plane of the cut so the blade covers one side as it leaves the other. The reach and the sheer presence of five and a half feet of steel does much of the work before contact.

Two hand positions matter. The lower hand takes the grip below the pommel for reach and power. The upper hand can come forward onto the leather wrapped ricasso to shorten the sword for close work, which is what the leather and the parierhaken above it exist for. A club that drills the Figueiredo rules will use both holds constantly.

Ricasso, parierhaken and spring steel at greatsword length

The blade 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, and on a blade this long that matters more than it does anywhere else in the range. A greatsword blade puts enormous leverage into any bind, and high carbon steel at cutting hardness would be the wrong answer in every way.

The ricasso is the unsharpened section directly above the guard and here it is wrapped in leather so a bare hand can hold it. That is not decoration and it is not an afterthought. Half swording a montante is ordinary practice, and the wrap is what makes it comfortable over a long session. The parierhaken sit at the top of the ricasso as a pair of forward pointing hooks, and their job is to catch a blade sliding down toward the hand and stop it there.

The side ring on the guard covers the hand from the outside line. The flex is stiff, which is the only sensible answer at this length. A soft greatsword blade whips and becomes unpredictable, and unpredictable is not what you want when the blade is this long and the arc this wide. Treat the tip as the dangerous part of the sword even blunted, because at the end of a 50 inch blade it is travelling fast.

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.

Engraving is cut in the United States after the sword arrives in North Babylon. Runes and text are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. A montante has more flat than any other piece we sell, so a longer rune line works here where it would crowd a smaller blade. The broad ricasso flats below the leather are another option.

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 is published for this sword. A photograph gives no scale, each is made by hand, and a figure invented for a listing would be worthless. What can be described is the architecture of a montante and what it does.

Everything about the design is aimed at making a very long blade manageable. The pommel is large and sits well behind the hands. The grip is long enough for the hands to be spread, which multiplies leverage. The ricasso gives a third position further up the blade again. Spread the hands and the sword turns easily. Bring them together and it reaches.

Give yourself room. The working arc of a montante is far larger than that of a longsword and a hall that suits longsword drill may not suit this at all. Two fencers with montantes need a great deal more floor than two fencers with feders. Check your ceiling height before the first cut, not after it.

Care

Wipe the blade after each session and keep a light oil on it, and pay particular attention to the parierhaken and the inside of the side ring where sweat collects and sits. The leather on the ricasso should be kept dry and treated occasionally with a leather dressing rather than oil.

This sword does not come with a scabbard and it is not meant to have one. A montante was carried over the shoulder, and that is how it is moved and stored today. Lay it flat on a rack or hang it horizontally rather than standing it in a corner where it can fall. The rest 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.

The only work done in the United States is the engraving, cut here after the sword lands and passes inspection.

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.

On a piece this size the variation is easier to see. The parierhaken will differ a little in sweep, the side ring in its exact curve, the leather on the ricasso in tone and in the pitch of its wrap. The blade may be a touch over or under the figure quoted. All of that is normal for hand work at this scale.

What is not normal, and what is covered without limit, is a blade that takes a set in ordinary drill, a hook that cracks, a pommel that will not stay peened or a heat treat that leaves the blade soft. Tell us and we will put it right.

Frequently asked questions

Whether a montante comes with a scabbard

No, and it never did. A montante was carried over the shoulder rather than slung at the hip, and no scabbard is supplied with this one.

Whether this sword is sharp

No. It is a blunted trainer with a flat edge land of about 3 mm and a rolled flared tip, built in spring steel for club work.

What parierhaken are for

They are the forward hooks above the ricasso. Their job is to stop an opposing blade that is sliding down the blade before it reaches the hands.

Why the ricasso is wrapped in leather

So a bare hand can grip it. Shortening the sword by taking the ricasso is standard montante practice and the wrap makes it comfortable.

How much space is needed to train with it

Considerably more than a longsword needs. Check ceiling height and floor area before the first session, since the working arc of a montante is very wide.

Whether it is legal for tournament use

We will not claim that, because it depends entirely on the ruleset. Montante events are rare and each one sets its own gear requirements, so read the handbook first.

What is in the box

• One Rundholm montante, about 66 inches overall.
• Care and handling card.
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings.
• Your engraving already cut, if you chose it at checkout.

Explore the range

Other two handed steel sits in HEMA longswords and in the purpose built feders. The historical two hand swords are in zweihanders, and the single handed steel is in HEMA arming swords. Everything in the line sits in the HEMA swords hub, and the reading is in the guides hub.

If this one is not it

Close in size and role you have Draugmoor longsword, about 49 inches overall, Torvhaug sharp langes messer, about 37 inches overall, Valkspire hand and a half, about 48 inches overall and Storvekk kriegsmesser, about 44 inches overall to compare against this one.

The wider HEMA sword hub holds the rest of the line, and you can specify your own on the custom sword builder.