The valknut is the knot of three interlocking triangles that turns up on Gotland picture stones and on ship burials, usually near Odin. Nobody can tell you with certainty what it meant, though the association with the slain and with the bind of fate is the best supported reading. A valknut axe puts that mark on the head or the collar, which is why the phrase draws in people who want a piece with a specific meaning rather than generic knotwork.
The marked heads
Two axes on this page carry the knot directly. One is a Damascus valknut axe with a pattern welded head and a hammer poll, an engraved valknut collar and a curved ash haft, which is the most deliberate piece of the group. The other is a mirror polished 1095 bearded head on a 17 inch ash haft with a 6 inch edge, the valknut cut into the cheek and a leather blade cover over it. A Damascus double bit felling axe sits beside them on a walnut haft with a brass collar and a leather edge cover. The rest of the archive is the wider run of Viking bearded axes at 18 to 22 inches on ash, birch, oak and rosewood hafts, plus a few seax and camp knives that share the steel. Heads are plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC or forge welded 1095 and 15N20 Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC. Prices run from 149 dollars to 560 dollars.
Before you put it on a wall
If you are going to wear or display a symbol, know what it says. Our piece on the valknut covers the surviving evidence and, more usefully, what the mark does not mean, and the wider context of who Odin was and why the knot sits near him is in the guide to the Norse gods. If you would rather choose the axe first and the mark second, the heavier heads are in war axes and the general range is in Viking axes, with a symbol cut to order once the piece lands.
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.
