1095 is a plain carbon steel with roughly nine tenths of a percent carbon and a small amount of manganese. Nothing else. No chromium, no vanadium, no tungsten. It is the simplest useful blade steel there is, it has been made in industrial quantities for over a century, and it remains the default for hand forged work because it hardens deeply and predictably in a coal or gas forge.
Where it turns up in this range
Scimitars around 36 inches overall with 30 inch blades, cutlasses at 30 inches with 24 inch blades, halberds running to 66 inches with 18 inch heads, poleaxes at 50 inches with 5.5 inch cutting edges, rapiers, short swords and axes. Blade hardness sits at 54 to 58 HRC across the range. Hafts are ash, oak and walnut. Fittings are steel and brass. Where a piece is pattern welded instead, the recipe is 1095 and 15N20 forge welded and acid etched at 58 to 60 HRC, and the listing says so.
What the numbers mean
The 10 in 1095 says plain carbon. The 95 says the carbon content. Hardness at 54 to 58 HRC on a long blade is deliberate rather than a shortcut, because a sword taken harder gets brittle and a brittle sword breaks instead of bending. Knives can go to 58 to 60 because they are short and supported. The vocabulary around all this is set out in the steel glossary, which is worth ten minutes before comparing any two blades on specification.
Rust is the only real drawback
No chromium means no corrosion resistance. Fingerprints etch, damp marks, and a season in a garage will spot a blade. A wipe and a thin film of oil is the whole routine. The polearms are in the Norse arms, the thrusting blades in the rapiers and the curved ones in the scimitars.
Why not a modern alloy
Because the alloys that outperform 1095 on paper are miserable to forge by hand and often need controlled atmosphere heat treatment to reach their numbers. For a hand forged piece the honest choice is a steel a smith can actually work, harden and repair with the equipment in front of them. That is 1095, and pattern welding it with 15N20 is the only meaningful step up in this catalogue.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
