Ironlotus Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Talwar | 34 Inch Overall with 28 Inch Blade | Collector Display Gift | RK-1390

The Ironlotus is a talwar built on the full Indo Persian hilt, the one with the swelling grip, the short recurved quillons, the knuckle bow sweeping up to the pommel and the disc closing the whole thing off with a domed boss at its centre. This is the form that dominated northern India from the sixteenth century onward, and it is one of the few sword hilts in the world that was made as a single unit of steel rather than assembled from separate parts. Indian smiths forged and chiselled the guard, grip core and pommel together, then set the blade into the hilt with hot lac resin rather than a peened tang, which is why so many surviving talwars can be dismantled by warming the hilt and why the blade and hilt on any given museum piece often started life on different swords.

This one is forged and finished in the Czech Republic. The blade is 1095 high carbon steel, moderately curved with a clipped false edge along the last several inches, hardened, tempered and polished. The hilt is all steel with a knuckle guard and a domed disc pommel. It ships in a tooled scabbard with chased brass mounts, with a care card, and shipping inside the United States is free.

Specifications

What the knuckle guard changes

A plain talwar hilt with no knuckle bow relies entirely on the disc to keep the sword in the hand. Adding the bow does two further things, and neither is the obvious one.

The first is that it protects the fingers, which matters more on a curved sword than a straight one because the geometry of a draw cut brings your hand across the target rather than stopping short of it. The second, and the one that changes how the sword feels, is that the bow adds steel behind the hand. On a sword whose entire design pushes mass forward into the belly of the blade, a few ounces at the very back of the hilt shifts the balance point noticeably closer to the guard. That is why talwars with knuckle bows handle more nimbly than their blade profile suggests. You get the cutting authority of a forward heavy sword with some of the recovery of a balanced one.

The clipped false edge at the tip belongs to the same set of decisions. Grinding a short sharpened section along the back of the last few inches lets the sword be used with a back cut, and it also removes a little weight from the extreme end of the blade, which again helps the sword come back after a swing.

Why 1095 high carbon steel and not stainless

1095 holds just under one percent carbon and almost no alloying elements. That is deliberate. Simple carbon steel hardens deeply and predictably, and its fine grain lets an edge come to a genuine apex instead of a row of carbides. Tempered to 54 to 58 HRC it holds an edge well and stays tough enough to survive an accident.

Stainless steel gets its rust resistance from chromium, and chromium above about thirteen percent ties carbon up in hard particles. That works in a kitchen knife and it does not work in a twenty eight inch blade, where those particles are stress risers waiting for a shock load. The trade with 1095 is corrosion, which is managed with a cloth and a bottle of oil. The comparison is set out in full on Damascus versus stainless.

The all steel hilt

There is no wood or horn anywhere on this hilt. The grip, the quillon block, the knuckle bow and the pommel disc are steel, which is how the best Indian hilts were made and why so many of them survive intact when the blades they carried have been reground to nothing.

A steel grip sounds uncomfortable and is not, because of the shape. It swells through the middle so that the palm is filled and the hand does not have to close hard, and it narrows at both ends so the fingers and the heel of the hand each have a positive stop. Held properly your hand is braced between the quillon block at the front and the disc at the back and can stay relaxed. That relaxed hand is what makes the wrist driven cutting of Indian swordsmanship possible. A steel hilt also conducts heat, so it will feel cold when you first pick it up and warm within a minute, and it takes fingerprints readily, so it wants the same wipe down as the blade.

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. On this sword there are two good surfaces: the flat of the blade forward of the quillons, and the face of the disc pommel, which suits a short mark or a date. See the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Both the blade and the hilt are carbon steel here, so both want oil. Wipe the whole sword down after handling and put a thin film of light oil over the blade and over the hilt every few weeks. The knuckle bow and the inside of the grip are the places people forget, and they are exactly where a hand leaves the most salt. A sword displayed indoors and oiled monthly will not corrode. Store it out of the scabbard, because leather holds moisture against steel. The routine is on steel care.

For sharpening, follow the arc of the blade across the stone rather than trying to keep it flat, work a few inches at a time and keep the angle constant so the bevel stays even along the whole edge. Take care around the clipped false edge, which is ground on the opposite side and is easy to round off if you are not paying attention. There is a step by step guide on sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

This talwar 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 on this page. The chiselled detail on the hilt, the tone of the polish, the chasing on the brass scabbard mounts and the tooling in the leather are all cut by hand and will differ from one piece to the next. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and that is the difference between something forged and something stamped out.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp when it arrives?

It comes with a working edge, which is the sensible state for a sword this size. Tell us in the order notes if you want it taken keener and we will do that before it ships.

Does the knuckle guard make it hard to draw?

No, but it does change the grip. You slide the hand in from the side rather than closing round the handle from above. It takes one attempt to learn.

What is the difference between this and a scimitar?

Scimitar is a broad European word for any curved eastern sword. Talwar is specific: it means this hilt, with the disc pommel and the swelling steel grip. So this is a talwar, and it is also a scimitar in the loose sense.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter for Elder Futhark or choose your own design in the engraving option, and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the hilt. Add about a week to the lead time.

Will mine look exactly like the photograph?

No. The hand chased brass mounts and the tooling on the scabbard vary from piece to piece, and so does the exact finish on the hilt. The steel, the size and the build are the same.

How long does shipping take?

Free inside the United States. Two to three business days for a sword in stock. Two to three weeks if it is engraved.

What is in the box

• Ironlotus hand forged 1095 high carbon steel talwar
• Tooled leather scabbard with chased brass throat and chape
• Care card with oiling and storage instructions
• Certificate of hand forging
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Browse the other scimitars, the full swords collection, the sabres and the engraved and personalised pieces, or read the guides.

If this one is not it

In the same category sits the Slatecrown scimitar, 36 inches overall. A near match for this one is the Brassbloom scimitar, 38 inches overall. Closest to this in the range is the Duneclaw scimitar, 33 inches overall.

Fitting out further, the Wheelbright arming sword belongs with it. Pick the steel, the length and the fittings yourself on the design your own page.

If sparring is on your mind, the Kjeldhar sabre trainer is made for that job, and our HEMA sabre range is a useful next stop.