A single hand sword is one you can use properly with one hand while the other holds a shield, a buckler or a set of reins. That constraint drives everything: the blade stays around 30 inches, the grip takes one fist and no more, and the pommel has to carry enough mass to bring the balance back behind the guard. Get the last part wrong and the sword feels dead no matter how good the steel is.
The swords here
Overall lengths run 31 to 38 inches with blades at 30 inches on the pieces that list them. The pommels do the balancing work and they vary: brass wheels over oxblood and pale leather grips, a steel wheel above a brown scabbard, a cast wolf head over a blackened ringed grip, a brazil nut, and one carrying a Yggdrasil medallion above a black grip with brass wire bands. Guards run to knotwork engraving, a straight crossguard, a downswept crossguard, a scrolled crossguard with a valknut rain guard on a flame bladed piece, and a brass guard and pommel pair over an oxblood grip. Blade work covers twin etched ravens, a rune cut fuller and an etched knotwork fuller panel. There is a Celtic arming sword at 31 inches with a cord wrapped grip and a tan scabbard at the short end. Steel is plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC apart from two Damascus pieces at 58 to 60. Prices run from 339 dollars to 549 dollars.
Balance, first swords and the world tree
If this would be your first, the honest advice is to ignore weight in isolation and pay attention to where the balance point sits. Our guide to buying a first sword works through it. The tree on one of these pommels has real meaning behind it, set out in our page on Yggdrasil. The full single hand range is in arming swords, and the Celtic and insular pieces sit in Anglo Saxon and Celtic.
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.
