Fernstride Hand Forged 1095 High Carbon Steel Ranger Longsword | 42 Inch Overall with 33 Inch Blade | Cosplay and Display Gift | RK-1253

The Fernstride is a plain, hard working double edged longsword of the kind a traveller on the road would actually have carried, with a tan leather scabbard and no ornament beyond a line of engraving in the fuller. Swords like this were rarely worn on a hip belt when the owner was covering distance. A long blade hung from the waist swings into the back of the knee at every stride and fouls a saddle. The practical answer, used from the late Roman period onward and again all through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was the baldric: a broad strap over the opposite shoulder that carries the weight on the trunk rather than the hips and lets the scabbard ride at a steep angle behind the leg. It is a small detail that tells you a sword was meant to be walked with rather than posed in.

The Fernstride is forged, ground, heat treated, polished and assembled by hand by hand in the Czech Republic. It ships with a fitted tan leather scabbard over a wooden core, a protective oil film on the blade, a care card, and free shipping anywhere in the United States.

Specifications

What a plain crossguard is doing

The straight bar guard on this sword is the oldest and most persistent piece of hardware in European sword design, and it survives because it does three separate jobs at once. The first is obvious: it stops an opposing blade sliding down yours into your fingers. The second is less obvious and more important in use. The guard is the pivot the hand works against. Pressing the flat of your blade into a bind and turning the hilt lets you displace an incoming blade sideways, and the crossguard gives that turn something to bear on. Without it your wrist takes the whole load.

The third job is mass. A steel bar across the hilt sits behind the hand and pulls the balance point back toward the grip. That is why the guard on a long blade is normally heavier than it needs to be for protection alone. On the Fernstride the guard, the tang and the rounded pommel together bring the point of balance to roughly three and a half inches ahead of the crossguard, which is what makes a thirty three inch blade feel like it belongs in the hand rather than at the end of a pole.

Why 1095 high carbon and not stainless

1095 is simple steel. Iron with just under one percent carbon and very little else, which means there is nothing in it to interrupt the grain and nothing exotic to go wrong in the heat treat. Quenched and then differentially tempered it gives a hard edge over a softer spine, so the cutting edge holds while the body of the blade stays tough enough to bend rather than break. Stainless cannot do that. Its chromium content forms carbides that resist rust superbly but leave the steel less forgiving in a long thin section, and a sword that shatters is a far worse outcome than a sword that needs wiping. The full comparison, and where pattern welded steel sits relative to both, is on our page covering Damascus versus stainless.

The grip and the wood inside it

Under the leather is a shaped hardwood core clamped around a full tang that runs the length of the handle and is peened over the pommel. Peening is a cold forging operation: the end of the tang is hammered until it mushrooms into the pommel seat and locks every component of the hilt under permanent compression. It cannot loosen the way a threaded pommel nut can, and it is the reason this sword will still be tight in thirty years.

The leather over the core is stitched on the back edge of the grip rather than the front, so the seam sits where the heel of your hand does not press it. Wood responds to humidity, so avoid storing the sword over a heat source or in an unheated garage where the swing between damp and dry is large. Our notes on wooden handle care cover what to use and how often.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the handle. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. The Fernstride is the plainest sword in this group, which makes it the easiest one to personalise heavily: there is clean polished flat either side of the fuller as well as the fuller itself. What fits, and what it costs, is on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

1095 rusts. That is the honest trade for the edge it holds. Wipe the blade after handling, keep a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on it, and check it every few months if it lives in a humid room. A light grey patina is not damage and many owners prefer it to a mirror; red rust is different and should be taken off early with oil and a fine abrasive pad rather than left to pit. Do not store the sword inside the scabbard for months on end, because tanned leather holds moisture against steel. The whole routine is on our steel care page. If you order the sharpened option, keep the bevel angle constant and work the full length of the edge, as described in our guide to sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This sword is hand forged. It is not machine made and it is not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Tan leather is the most variable colour we work with, because vegetable tanned hide darkens as it ages and no two skins start from the same shade. The wood grain in the grip, the tone of the scabbard, the depth of the etched line and the exact profile of the point all vary from piece to piece, because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp out of the box?

No, it ships with a display edge, safe to handle and to hang. Choose the sharpened option and we will grind a working edge before it leaves Memphis.

Can it be used for cutting practice?

Yes, once sharpened. Full tang, peened pommel and a differentially tempered 1095 blade make this a functional sword rather than a decorative one. It is not built for edge on edge sparring against another steel blade, which chews up any sword.

Can I have runes cut into it?

Yes. Use the converter on this page. Because the blade is plain, your Elder Futhark line can go in the fuller or along the flat, and we can also stamp it into the scabbard leather.

Will mine match the photograph exactly?

Not exactly. Same steel, same dimensions, same geometry, but the leather tone and the wood grain are individual to each sword since every one is finished by hand.

How does this compare to a Viking sword?

A Viking age sword is shorter, around thirty six inches overall, with a broad blade, a short one handed grip and a heavy lobed or brazil nut pommel. This is the later medieval development: longer blade, longer grip for two hands, more taper and a lighter point.

What is the delivery time?

Free shipping within the United States. In stock pieces leave in two to three business days. Add two to three weeks if you order engraving.

What is in the box

• Fernstride hand forged 1095 high carbon longsword
• Tan leather scabbard over a wooden core with fitted throat and chape
• Protective oil coat on the blade for transit
• Care and sharpening card
• Rune engraving certificate where personalisation was ordered
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Look through the rest of the longswords, the fantasy and movie style swords, our arming swords and the scabbards and sheaths. Steel, edge geometry and care are covered in the guides.