Nightwheel Hand Forged High Carbon Steel Talwar Sword | 35 Inch Overall with 29 Inch Blade | Collector Display Gift | RK-1391

The Nightwheel is a talwar sword with a broad bellied blade, a knuckle guard, quillons finished in brass balls and a wide disc pommel closing the grip. The disc is what names the type. Everything above it, the width of the blade, the depth of the curve, the presence or absence of a false edge, varied enormously across northern India and none of it changed what the sword was called. Blades were traded, inherited, rehilted and remounted so freely that a talwar in a collection today can easily carry a hundred year old blade in a fifty year old hilt, and nobody at the time would have thought that odd. The hilt was the sword. The blade was a consumable.

This one is forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee. The blade is 1095 high carbon steel with a deep curve and a generous cutting belly, hardened, tempered and taken to a mirror polish. The hilt has a dark blackwood grip, a knuckle bow, brass ball finials on the quillons and a broad disc pommel. It ships in a black leather scabbard with a brass throat, with a care card, and shipping inside the United States is free.

Specifications

Distal taper, and how a smith sets the balance

Look at this sword edge on and you will see that the blade is noticeably thicker at the guard than it is near the point. That change in thickness along the length is called distal taper, and it is the single most important thing a maker controls that a buyer never sees in a photograph.

Two swords can have identical outlines, identical lengths and identical weights and handle completely differently depending on how that weight is distributed. A blade with little distal taper carries its mass out at the tip. It hits hard and it is exhausting, because every change of direction has to fight the momentum of steel a long way from your hand. A blade with strong distal taper has the same total weight sitting closer in, so it starts and stops quickly, but it gives up some cutting authority.

A talwar of this shape is set somewhere in the middle. Enough taper to make the sword recover between cuts, enough mass left in the belly to make each cut mean something. It is achieved at the forge, by drawing the blade thinner as it goes out, and then refined on the grinder. It cannot be added afterwards. This is why a hand forged blade and a stamped one that look identical in a listing photograph feel like completely different objects in the hand.

Why 1095 high carbon steel and not stainless

1095 is plain carbon steel, just under one percent carbon, with nothing else of consequence in it. That plainness is why it makes good swords. It hardens through the full thickness of a blade this size, its fine grain lets an edge come to a real apex, and at 54 to 58 HRC it is hard enough to hold that edge and soft enough to bend rather than break.

Stainless steels resist rust because they contain chromium, and chromium binds carbon into hard carbides. In a paring knife that is a good deal. In a twenty nine inch blade it is not, because those carbides make the steel brittle in exactly the situations where a sword needs toughness. What you take on with 1095 is the need to keep oil on it. That is housekeeping, not a flaw. The full argument is on Damascus versus stainless.

The blackwood grip

The grip is dark blackwood, dense and close grained, shaped with the swell through the middle that a talwar hilt needs and pinned through a full width tang. The colour comes from the timber itself rather than from a stain, so a scratch does not show pale underneath.

The point of the swell is that it fills the palm without asking the fingers to close hard. Combined with the disc at the back and the quillon block at the front, the hand ends up braced at three points and can stay loose. A loose hand is faster, absorbs shock better and gives the wrist room to rotate, which is exactly what a curved cutting sword needs. Blackwood is naturally oily and stable, but any wooden grip appreciates a wipe of oil once or twice a year, particularly if the sword hangs in a room with dry winter heat. The routine is on wooden handle care.

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 broad flat of this blade just forward of the quillons takes a line of runes cleanly, and the disc pommel will take a short mark or a date. See the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Wipe the blade down with a dry cloth every time it has been handled, and keep a thin film of light oil on it. Mirror polish shows every mark, and a fingerprint left on carbon steel will etch into a grey shadow inside a fortnight. Once a month with an oiled rag will keep a sword displayed indoors in good order indefinitely. Do not leave it stored in the scabbard, because leather holds moisture and tanning residue against steel and will corrode a blade that would have been fine hanging on a wall. Details are on steel care.

Sharpening a curved blade means following the arc. Work three or four inches at a time, keep the bevel angle constant, and sweep the blade along the stone so that the belly gets the same number of passes as the section near the guard. It is easy to over sharpen the middle and leave the ends dull. Finish on a fine stone and strop it. See sharpening with a whetstone.

Forged in Memphis

We make this sword in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing here is drop shipped from an importer catalogue and nothing is a finished import with a badge added. The steel is cut, forged, ground, hardened, tempered, polished, hilted and scabbarded under one roof by the people whose names are on the certificate in the box. That is why we can quote a real lead time. A sword already on the rack ships in two to three business days. Made to order, or with engraving, it is two to three weeks. You are told which before you pay, not after.

A note on handmade variation

This talwar 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 on this page. Blackwood varies in figure from board to board, the brass will take its own patina, the polish lies differently along every curve and the leather of the scabbard has its own grain. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same on every one. The character is not, and that is exactly what you get for choosing something forged by hand.

Frequently asked questions

Does it come sharp?

Yes, with a working edge rather than a razor. That is the right condition for a thirty five inch sword. If you want it keener, ask in the order notes and we will take it further before it ships.

Can I throw it or spar with it?

No to both. It is a sharp sword with a hardened edge, not a trainer and certainly not a thrown weapon. Light test cutting on mats or bottles is fine.

What is the difference between this and a sabre?

A sabre is a European cavalry sword, usually narrower, with a knuckle bow and often a thrusting point. This is Indian, identified by its disc pommel, and its blade is wider through the belly and built for the cut alone.

Can I have runes engraved on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter for Elder Futhark or pick your own design in the engraving option, and tell us blade or handle. It adds roughly a week to the lead time.

Will mine be identical to the photograph?

No. Wood figure, brass tone and leather grain differ between pieces. The steel, the dimensions and the construction do not.

How long does shipping take?

Free inside the United States. Two to three business days to dispatch a stock sword, two to three weeks for one made to order or engraved.

What is in the box

• Nightwheel hand forged 1095 high carbon steel talwar sword
• Black leather scabbard with brass throat
• Care card with oiling and storage instructions
• Certificate of hand forging
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See the other scimitars, the whole swords range, the sabres and the cutlasses, or read the guides.