Czech forged is a description of where the hammer falls. Ransack Viking is a US company based in North Babylon, New York. Pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from New York. Engraving is done in the US after arrival. The reason to say it plainly is that central Europe has a long, unbroken trade making this class of piece for reenactors and museums, and that is not a marketing story, it is the reason the shapes are right.
What comes out of these shops
This tag holds the broadest spread on the site. Viking and arming swords with etched fullers and lobed or disc pommels. Boar spears with broad leaf blades and curved steel crossbars on ash hafts. Riveted nasal helmets in mild steel with knotwork browbands. Blacksmith hammers with rune cut shanks and hickory grips. Bearded axes, double headed axes and long hafted shapes. Steel is either plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC or Damascus of 1095 and 15N20, forge welded and acid etched, at 58 to 60 HRC. Hafts are ash, oak, walnut and hickory. Fittings are steel or brass, and grips are leather wrapped or wood.
What that origin buys you
Details that are cheap to skip and expensive to fake. A spear socket that is forged and welded rather than rolled and pinned. A helmet with real riveting instead of spot welds. An axe with a proper drifted eye and a wedged haft, so the head does not walk loose after a season. Everything is opened and checked in New York before it goes out, because shipping is hard on wood and leather. The full statement of who makes what and where it ships from is on the country of origin page, and the exact steel specification is on the steel we use and how hard it is. Browse the Norse arms or the Viking spears.
Variation between pieces
Hand work means dimensions are nominal rather than machined. Two axes of the same model can differ slightly in head weight and haft grain, and two Damascus blades will never carry the same pattern. Listed lengths are the piece as measured, and anything outside a sensible tolerance does not get listed at all.
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.
