Rosewood is the dark, close grained hardwood that turns up on more handles here than any other timber. It is dense, oily enough to shrug off a damp hand, and it darkens with use instead of going grey. A rosewood handle knife is what people ask for when they want something that looks like an heirloom on a shelf but still feels honest in the grip, which is why the phrase pulls in gift buyers as often as it pulls in hunters and campers.
What carries rosewood in this range
The knives run right across the catalogue. There are folding pocket knives with stag bolsters and cowhide sheaths, bowies with steel bolsters and black fiber spacers, long display daggers, a broken back Viking seax at 13 inches overall with brass bolsters, a bushcraft tracker, camp knives with Damascus guards, karambits with a steel finger ring, skinners paired with stag, a chef knife with a mosaic pin, and kukri choppers at 16 and 17 inches overall that ship with two companion blades in the sheath. Most blades are forge welded 1095 and 15N20 Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC. A few are plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC, including one kukri with an Elder Futhark band cut into the blade. Rosewood also shows up on axe hafts at 19 to 22 inches and on a pair of swords at 28 and 35 inches overall. Prices across the page run from 99 dollars to 339 dollars.
Living with a wooden handle
Rosewood needs less attention than the steel does, but it is still wood. Keep it out of a dishwasher, keep it out of standing water, and rub a little mineral oil into it once or twice a year if it starts to look thirsty. The blade is the part that will punish neglect, and our knife care guide covers drying, oiling and safe storage for carbon steel. If you are still choosing a shape rather than a handle, the rundown of blade shapes explains what a drop point, a clip point and a broken back spine each do well. The full patterned range sits in Damascus knives, and the pocket sized folders with wood scales are in folding pocket knives.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
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.
