A Viking axe is the arm the Norse actually used. Swords were expensive and comparatively rare. Axes were everywhere, because a working axe was already in every household and turning it toward a fight required no additional outlay. That is the honest reason the axe dominates Norse graves and the sword does not.
What is on this tag
Bearded axes on 19 inch oak hafts with etched coiled serpents, Damascus bearded axes with triquetra engraved cheeks on pale ash hafts with steel collars, double headed axes on 19 inch oak with vegvisir etching, Damascus double headed axes with engraved Mjolnir cheeks, and splitting and felling patterns. Heads are plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC or Damascus of 1095 and 15N20, forge welded and acid etched, at 58 to 60 HRC. Hafts are oak, ash and walnut, drifted and wedged rather than glued, and each ships with a leather blade cover.
What makes a head Norse rather than generic
The thinness. A Viking axe head is much thinner in section than a modern wood axe, with the mass concentrated at the eye and along the edge, which gives an enormous cutting edge for very little weight. The beard, the hook drawn down at the lower rear of the edge, extends that edge further and gives you somewhere to choke up your hand. Put a Norse head beside a modern felling head and the difference is immediate. The comparison with medieval axes traces how the shape changed as armor improved.
Choosing and buying
The Viking axe buyer guide works through head weight, haft length and what each pattern is for. The classic Norse profile is in the bearded axes and the full range in the Viking axes.
What arrives
The head comes mounted and wedged on an oil finished haft with a leather blade cover. Hafts can be sanded back and reoiled after a few years instead of peeling the way a lacquered handle does. Head weights vary slightly between pieces because the shaping is done under a hammer and no two Damascus heads carry the same pattern.
Using one
These are working heads rather than castings. A bearded axe will split kindling and will want its edge dressed with a file and a stone afterwards, not a grinder.
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.
