A valknut sword carries the knot of three interlocking triangles somewhere on the hilt or the blade. The mark comes from Gotland picture stones and ship burials and sits close to Odin in every context it survives in, which is why it ends up on Norse blades more than any other symbol. What buyers want from this phrase is a sword where the mark is cut into the steel rather than stuck on top of it.
Where the knot sits
The placement varies more than you would expect, and it changes the whole feel of the sword. Some carry it on the pommel: a lobed pommel with the knot inlaid over a serpentine core, a trilobate pommel above a pattern welded chevron fuller, and a disc pommel above a rune cut fuller. Others put it on the guard, including one with blackened fittings and a leather wrapped grip, and one as a rain guard under a scrolled crossguard on a flame bladed sword. The rest etch it into the blade itself, on a ricasso, on a blackened blade, on a falchion, on two katana and on a pair of matched ninjato that ship with two black scabbards. Overall lengths run 29 to 46 inches. Steel is plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC or forge welded 1095 and 15N20 Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC, and nearly all come with a fitted leather scabbard. Prices run from 319 dollars to 695 dollars.
Know what you are hanging up
The knot is genuinely old and genuinely unexplained, which is a better story than the tidy version most sellers give it. Our piece on the valknut covers the surviving evidence and what it does not support, and the guide to the Norse gods gives the Odin context the mark keeps turning up in. To shop by shape rather than by symbol, the single hand blades are in arming swords and the patterned steel is in Damascus swords.
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.
