Viking Spears

Why the spear was the ordinary Norse arm

Take the amount of steel in a sword blade and divide it by six. That is roughly what a spearhead costs, and it is the whole reason the spear outnumbered everything else in the Norse world. The difficult part of the object is a foot of forged steel. The rest is a length of ash that anyone could cut, and that could be replaced without touching the head.

Reach is the second reason. A spear puts the point four or five feet beyond your hands, so the person holding one controls the ground in front of them. In a shield wall that is decisive, because a line of spears can strike over the top of the shields. It is also why the spear survived into the pike and the bayonet long after the sword had become a badge.

The construction is the same everywhere. The head is forged with a socket at the base, a cone of steel wrapped around and welded down the seam, and the haft is fitted into that socket and riveted through. That joint is the only part of a spear that can fail, which is why it gets a rivet rather than glue and why every head here is socketed rather than tanged. The head shape is the only place a spear gets to have opinions.

The spears in this collection

Seventeen products are on this page. Fourteen are complete spears, and three are heads sold on their own for anyone hafting their own.

Leaf blade spears

The standard Norse form and the largest group here. A broad or narrow leaf with a raised central rib running to the point, sharpened both edges, socketed and riveted through the haft. Heads run 11 to 12 inches including the socket, on hafts from 60 to 84 inches. The rib stiffens the blade so the point does not fold when it meets something solid, which is why a leaf head is thick down the middle and thin at the edges. Several carry a rune cut socket, a knotwork collar or an Elder Futhark row etched along the face.

Winged and lugged spears

Two pieces carry wings or lugs at the base of the blade, a pair of projections that stop the head burying itself past a certain depth. That matters if the thing you have just hit is heavy, angry and coming down the shaft toward you. One is a Damascus winged spear with a 12 inch head on a 72 inch ash haft and a turned brass ferrule with copper rivets. The other is a boar spear with a 13 inch lugged head, 2.5 inches wide, on a 30 inch haft of olive wood forward and walnut behind.

Boar spears with crossbars

Two pieces use a crossbar rather than wings, a curved forged steel bar with rounded finials set across the base of the blade. Same idea, more of it. One is plain 1095 with a broad leaf blade, a long riveted steel socket and a pale ash haft. The other is Damascus with a swept crossbar and a brass knotwork ferrule. Both come with a leather blade cover, which on a piece like this is not optional.

Tridents

Two three prong heads. One is a 12 inch head in plain 1095 on a 66 inch ash haft with a knotwork collar, closer to a fishing fork than anything else. The other is a 14 inch Damascus head, about 6 inches across the outer prongs, on a 36 inch ebony haft with a turned brass collar and butt cap. That one is a display piece and makes no pretence otherwise.

Spearheads sold on their own

Three products for anyone fitting their own haft. A single broad leaf head in Damascus with a raised central rib and a brass socket collar, about 14 to 15 inches from point to socket mouth. A matched pair of carbon steel heads with rune cut sockets. And a set of six socketed 1095 heads in graduated sizes, 5 to 9 inches long and 1 to 2.5 inches wide, from a narrow lozenge to a broad leaf, in a canvas roll with rune marked collars.

Heads, hafts and fittings across the range

Every figure below comes from the specification panel of a piece on this page. These are forged and fitted by hand, so read the numbers as what to expect rather than a guarantee to the millimetre.

Head length is quoted including the socket on most of these, so a 12 inch head has roughly 8 inches of blade in front of the collar. Compare like with like before deciding one head is bigger than another.

Sizing, fit and the ceiling problem

The complete spears run from 30 inches up to 7 feet, which covers three genuinely different objects. A 30 to 36 inch piece is a short hunting or display spear you can hold in one hand and hang anywhere. A 60 to 68 inch spear is a working length, long enough for reach and short enough to carry through a doorway. Past 72 inches you have a full length shafted piece that will not stand upright in a room with an eight foot ceiling once you allow for the butt spike.

Haft diameter on the pieces that list it sits around 1.1 inches, which fills an adult hand without being a broom handle. Ash is the right timber and the one the originals used, because it is springy along the grain and absorbs shock rather than transmitting it.

Balance sits well forward of centre on any spear. That is normal and is what makes the point go where you aim it. If you want a piece that feels lively rather than authoritative, look at the shorter hunting lengths.

These are reenactment and display pieces rather than certified sports equipment. A leather head cover is supplied with every complete spear for a reason. Keep it on unless the spear is on a wall.

Steel and hardness

Two house specifications run through Ransack Viking blades. Plain 1095 high carbon is hardened to 54 to 58 HRC. Damascus of 1095 and 15N20 is forge welded, acid etched and hardened to 58 to 60 HRC. This page is split fairly evenly between them.

On a spearhead the argument tilts slightly toward plain 1095. A point takes shock along its length rather than across an edge, and the softer specification bends and recovers where a harder one is more willing to chip at the tip.

Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC is the choice when you want the pattern, and on a leaf blade with a raised rib there is a lot of surface for it to show on. The pieces here are described with layered wave and raindrop figures, hand etched to raise the contrast. Neither steel is stainless and both will rust. Read Damascus versus high carbon steel and the steel and hardness page if you want the longer version.

Sockets, hafts and ferrules

The socket is where a spear lives or dies. Sockets here are forge wrapped and seam welded, fitted over the shaped end of the haft and riveted through, often with a brass or steel collar over the joint. A riveted socket can be knocked out and refitted. A glued one cannot, and there are none here.

Hafts are straight grained ash on almost everything, oiled or sealed. Straight grain matters more than species, because a haft with run out, where the grain exits the side of the shaft, will snap at that point. Two pieces use something else, ebony on the display trident and olive wood with a walnut rear section on the short boar spear.

The butt end gets a ferrule, a spike or a cap. A steel or brass butt spike lets the spear be planted in ground and gives a second point at the back. A plain ferrule protects the end grain from splitting. Several here carry engraved brass fittings: a Valknut on one ferrule, knotwork on another, cut runes around a socket.

Care and storage

Both steels are carbon steel and both rust. Wipe the head after handling, keep a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on it, and never leave it in the leather cover damp. Leather holds moisture against steel, which is the most common reason a well kept point ends up marked. Grey patina is stable. Orange spotting is early rust and lifts with fine abrasive and oil.

Ash hafts want a wipe of oil once or twice a year and nothing else. Keep them out of direct sun, which dries and greys the surface, and away from radiators. Check the rivet at the socket occasionally, because a haft that has dried and shrunk slightly will let the head work loose, and a loose head on a long shaft is the one genuinely dangerous fault a spear can develop.

Store a long spear horizontally on two brackets rather than standing it in a corner, where it will lean, bow over years and eventually fall on someone. Our guide to displaying swords and axes covers the hardware.

Engraving and gifting

Spearheads take engraving well on the blade face and on the socket collar, and several pieces here already carry cut work: an Elder Futhark row etched along a blade, a Valknut in a brass ferrule, knotwork around a collar, rune cut sockets on a matched pair of heads.

Text engraving is 19 dollars, a symbol is 39 dollars and a family crest is 49 dollars, cut in the United States after the piece arrives. Elder Futhark is a phonetic alphabet rather than a code, so a name is transliterated by sound and there is no rune for the letter C. See the Elder Futhark guide and the engraving page.

Engraving is permanent and an engraved piece cannot be returned, so send the exact spelling and read it twice before you order.

Where these come from and how they ship

Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. The pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival.

Long spears ship in a long box and cost more to send than anything else in the catalogue, so allow extra time. Small differences in grain, etch figure and the exact sweep of a wing between two spears of the same name are normal. Timelines are on the shipping information page and returns on the returns and warranty policy.

How to choose

Start with the length, because it decides where the spear can live. Measure the wall or the ceiling first, then pick the head. A plain leaf in 1095 is the historically correct answer and the one that reads as a Norse spear to anyone who knows. A winged or crossbarred head reads as a hunting piece. A trident reads as a display object, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Then pick the steel. Plain 1095 for a piece that will be handled and carried, Damascus for one that will be looked at. Then check the leather head cover, which almost all of these have, because you will want it the first time you carry the thing through a door.

Browse related categories

• Glaives and other polearms
• Halberds
• Poleaxes
• Bearded axes
• Dane axes, the other long shafted Norse piece
• Viking swords
• Round shields to go with a spear
• Stands and display hardware

Guides worth reading first

• The Viking spear, from Gungnir to the shield wall
• Viking armour explained
• Norse gods and the arms they carry
• How to display swords, axes and shafted pieces
• Norse symbols and what they mean