Viking armour covers everything worn rather than swung: mail, plate, scale, leather and the helmets that go with them. The Norse reality was less uniform than films suggest, which is why this archive runs from a butted mail coif to a banded Roman cuirass. People come here for three jobs. Reenactors need kit that survives a weekend and looks right in a shieldwall. Larp and cosplay buyers need something that fits over clothes and photographs well. Collectors want a stand or a wall to look finished.
What the pieces are made of
Steel bodies are mild steel at 16 or 18 gauge. Sixteen gauge is the thicker of the two and turns up on a riveted spangenhelm. Eighteen gauge carries most of the cuirasses, the scale shirts, the manica arm guards and the articulated bands, which keeps the weight sane for a long day. Mail is butted round wire in mild steel, made up as a short sleeved hauberk with a thigh length skirt, as coifs with a leather bound face opening and a drawstring throat, and as mitten gauntlets on tooled leather cuffs. Leather work is hand made: a black cuirass with an engraved vegvisir and side lacing, a tan Celtic knotwork chest panel, riveted brigandine sized to order, and scale pauldrons with overlapping riveted plates. Helmets include spectacle types with riveted eye guards, a conical nasal helm with brass rivets, and a spangenhelm with a riveted brow band, leather liner and chin strap. Detailing runs to roped edges, chased knotwork, brass rivets and browbands, Elder Futhark rune plaques and burgundy wool lining. Shields and a shield boss with a rune cut flange sit at the edge of the range. Prices run from 139 dollars to 699 dollars.
Choosing a layer
Start with what you already own, because armour is bought in layers and the order matters. Our overview of Viking armour covers what was actually worn and what is modern invention, and the comparison of mail, plate and lamellar is the one to read before you spend on a body piece. Mail is the heaviest commitment and the one that needs the most looking after, and it lives in chainmail armour. The steel bodies and pauldrons are in plate armour.
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.
