Knotwarden Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Arming Sword | 37 Inch Overall with a 30 Inch Blade | Collector and Display Gift | RK-1376

A knightly arming sword with a fullered 1095 blade, a downswept crossguard finishing in quatrefoil terminals, a leather over wood grip with a raised riser and a disc pommel carrying an engraved valknut. This is the type an armoured man wore at his hip through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, carried alongside a shield rather than instead of one, and the single hand grip is the whole point of it. The sword had to be usable with the other hand occupied, which is why the arming sword stayed short and light while battlefield blades around it grew.

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 scabbard 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

What the disc pommel is actually for

People assume a pommel is a counterweight and stop there. It is more specific than that. A pommel sets the balance point of the sword, and moving the balance an inch back toward the hand changes the sword from something you fight with your shoulder to something you fight with your fingers. A disc pommel of this size on a thirty inch blade puts the balance around four inches ahead of the guard, which is where a single hand sword wants it.

It does two other jobs. It is the mechanical anchor of the whole sword, because the tang runs through it and is peened over on the far side, so the pommel is what holds guard, grip and blade together as one rigid assembly. And it stops the hand sliding off the back of the grip when the sword is used in a thrust. The valknut engraved into ours is a Norse motif of three interlocked triangles found on picture stones and ship burials, whose meaning is genuinely unknown, which is a more honest thing to say about it than most sellers will.

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 sword blade that meets a hard target wants to flex and return 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 thirty inch blade that has to flex, 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 leather over wood grip

The grip is a shaped wooden core, split and glued around the tang, then covered in brown leather and finished with a raised riser at the centre and a cord band at each end. It is built that way because that is how period grips were built, and the construction has real advantages over a solid metal or moulded handle. Wood damps vibration, so a hard cut does not ring straight into the hand. Leather grips better as it warms and better still as it takes up the shape of a specific hand over time.

The riser is the small raised band you can feel under the fingers. It stops the hand creeping forward toward the guard under a thrust and gives you a reference point so you know where you are holding without looking. Keep the leather away from prolonged damp and feed it once a year with a leather balm rather than an oil, which can soften the core. The wooden core underneath follows the same rules as any handle, and our guide to wooden handle care covers it.

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 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 Chicago, Illinois. 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 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. The leather on the grip and scabbard takes colour unevenly, and the knotwork panel is cut freehand, so no two swords read quite the same.

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 it sharp?

Yes, both edges are ground and honed to a working sharpness and the point is finished as a point. If you want it delivered unsharpened for display or for a reenactment group that requires it, say so before we ship.

Is the tang full length?

Yes. The tang runs the full length of the grip and through the pommel, where it is peened over. There is no threaded rod, no glued stub and no hidden weld. That is the only construction we build swords with.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page for Elder Futhark or choose your own Viking pattern. This blade already carries a knotwork panel at the ricasso, and any engraving you order replaces that panel rather than sitting beside it.

Will mine look like the photograph?

The blade geometry, dimensions and fittings will match. The leather on the grip and scabbard is cut and stitched by hand from natural hide, so its colour and grain vary, and the engraved panel is cut freehand.

What is the difference between this and a longsword?

Grip length and intent. An arming sword has a single hand grip and was carried with a shield. A longsword has a grip long enough for two hands and a longer blade, and it replaced the arming sword as armour improved.

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. Shipping inside the United States is free and tracking goes out with it.

What is in the box

• One hand forged arming sword in 1095 high carbon steel
• Leather over wood grip with a raised riser and engraved disc pommel
• Fitted leather scabbard
• Care, oiling and sharpening notes
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in arming swords, viking swords, longswords and scabbards and sheaths, and read the guides.

Other pieces in this group

For a straight comparison, see the Broadmarch arming sword, 33 inches overall. Worth putting side by side with this is the Nightbough arming sword, 37 inches overall. In the same category sits the Wolfbrand arming sword, 36 inches overall.

From the same corner of the shop, there is the Nightfell Viking sword. Nothing here exactly right, build one to your own spec on the custom Viking sword page.

If you would rather train with a sword than hang one up, the Orveldt sidesword suits club work, and our HEMA sidesword range covers the choices.