Wardenpike Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Halberd | 60 Inch Overall with a 16 Inch Head | Reenactment Display Gift | RK-1363

A halberd is an axe, a spear and a hook on the same stave, and each of the three exists to solve a different problem on a battlefield where infantry had to stand against cavalry. This one carries a long axial spike, a deep crescent blade cut away behind its horns and an upturned rear fluke, all forged from 1095 high carbon steel and held to a pale ash stave by brass langets riveted through the wood. The Swiss made the type famous in the fourteenth century, and it stayed in front line service for close to three hundred years, which almost nothing else in the medieval arsenal managed.

Forged, heat treated and finished by hand in the Czech Republic, hardened and drawn to 54 to 58 HRC and polished. It ships with the fitted leather head cover shown, free anywhere in the United States, and it can be engraved with Elder Futhark runes or a Viking pattern before it leaves the bench.

Specifications

The hook is the part that mattered

Everyone looks at the axe blade first. The part that actually changed battles is the fluke on the back, the upturned hook opposite the edge. A man on foot cannot fight a man on a horse on equal terms. He can, however, put a hook over an arm, a saddle, a stirrup or the rider himself and pull, and once the rider is on the ground the advantage reverses completely. Contemporary accounts of Swiss and Landsknecht infantry describe exactly this, and the halberds that survive show wear on the inside of the hook consistent with it.

The other two parts support that job. The spike keeps a horse at distance in the first place, because nothing charges a hedge of points, and it lets the halberdier fight in a formation where there is no room to swing. The crescent blade is what finishes the work once the enemy is close and unhorsed, and it is cut away behind the horns to save weight so the head does not become too slow to bring back for a second stroke.

Why 1095 high carbon steel and not stainless

Every plain steel piece in this group is forged from 1095, a simple high carbon steel with roughly one percent carbon and very little else in it. That plainness is the point. A steel with nothing but iron and carbon to argue about moves predictably under the hammer, takes a clean quench, and comes back to a hardness a smith can actually hold to. These are hardened and drawn to 54 to 58 HRC, which is deliberately a touch softer than a kitchen knife. A head that has to survive impact wants to bend and rebound rather than chip, and 1095 in that range absorbs a bad hit instead of losing a piece of itself.

Stainless alloys buy their rust resistance with chromium, and above about thirteen percent that chromium ties up carbon in carbides that make the steel harder to forge and more brittle at the edge. On a small folding knife that trade is fine. On a head that lands with the weight of a haft behind it, it is not. The cost of choosing 1095 is that it will rust if you leave it wet. Wipe it, oil it, and it will outlast you. There is more on that trade in our guide to Damascus versus stainless.

The ash haft

The haft is American ash, the same timber that goes into tool handles and baseball bats, and it is here for one reason. Ash has long straight fibres that run the length of the stave, which means it flexes under a shock load and returns instead of snapping across the grain. That flex is what keeps a heavy head from beating your hands. It is turned, sanded and finished with oil rather than lacquer, so the grain stays open and the surface grips a dry hand instead of sliding.

Oil finishes want feeding. Once or twice a year, wipe on a thin coat of boiled linseed or a hardwood handle oil, let it soak for twenty minutes and wipe the surplus off. Do not leave it standing in a damp corner or propped against a masonry wall, because wood pulls moisture out of stone and the fit at the head will loosen. Our guide to wooden handle care covers the routine.

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.

Engraving is cut by hand after the piece is finished and before final oiling, so keep the line short and let it sit where the eye already goes. Names, dates, a line of a poem, a maker mark, a unit or a crew number all work. If you are unsure where a line should sit, send us the text and we will suggest a placement before we cut. Full details and examples are on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Carbon steel rusts. That is the only demanding thing about owning it. Wipe the steel down after handling, because fingerprints are salt and moisture and they will etch a bright surface in a week if you let them sit. A thin film of mineral oil, gun oil or paste wax on the metal is enough to keep it stable indoors. If the piece lives on a wall in a room that swings between damp and dry, check it every few months and re oil. Left alone in a garage or a basement it will spot, and once it spots the mark is permanent even after the rust is removed.

The edge is finished sharp from the forge and does not need attention until it stops biting. When it does, a coarse then fine whetstone, kept wet, held at the angle the bevel already carries, will bring it back in a few minutes. Do not take a powered grinder to it. Our guides cover steel care and sharpening with a whetstone in more detail.

Made in the Czech Republic

This is a handmade piece from the Czech Republic, made in a workshop that still forges, grinds and finishes by hand instead of stamping parts out. The smiths there have kept the older way of working, and the wood, horn and leather are shaped and fitted by hand as well. Two pieces of the same design will never be identical, and that is part of what you are buying.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We handle the import ourselves, look over every piece when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done in the United States after the piece arrives, so your design goes on before we send it out.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand forged. It is not machine made, not cast and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The grain of the wood, the tone the steel takes from the fire and the oil, the exact run of a pattern, the precise curve of a profile, all of it shifts a little from one piece to the next because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. Two hafts cut from the same board will not read the same. Two etched blades from the same billet will not carry the same swirl.

What does not change is the specification. Dimensions, steel, hardness, fittings and build are the same every time. The character is the part that is yours alone, and it is the reason to buy something forged rather than something stamped.

Frequently asked questions

Is the blade sharp?

Yes, the crescent edge is ground and honed and it cuts. The spike is brought to a point and the hook is left blunt on its inner curve, which is correct, because the hook works by catching and pulling rather than cutting.

How does it ship at five feet long?

Braced in a long carton with the head covered and the haft padded at both ends. It goes as one piece rather than in sections, and shipping inside the United States is free even at that length.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark or choose your own Viking pattern. On a halberd the brass langets and the broad flat of the axe cheek are the two surfaces that take a line best.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The head geometry, the length and the fittings will match. The ash grain will be its own, the leather wrap will be cut and stitched by hand, and the brass may arrive brighter or duller depending on how recently it was finished.

What is the difference between this and a bardiche?

A bardiche is a long curved blade attached to the haft at two points, with no spike and no hook. A halberd is the more complex tool, and the bardiche is the simpler, cheaper answer to the same problem.

How long does shipping take?

Two to three business days to leave the shop if it is in stock, two to three weeks if it is being made or engraved. We send tracking as soon as the carton goes out.

What is in the box

• One hand forged halberd in 1095 high carbon steel
• American ash haft with brass langets, brass rivets and butt ferrule
• Leather wrapped rear grip
• Fitted leather head cover and care notes
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in halberds, poleaxes, glaives and polearms and Norse arms, and read the guides.