Stormknot Hand Forged 1095 Throwing Knife Set | Three 11 Inch Satin Blades with Etched Valknut | Paracord Grips and Leather Roll | Norse Target Gift | RK-1599

The Stormknot is a matched throwing knife set of three, forged from 1095 high carbon steel and finished in a hand rubbed satin rather than a coating. Each blade is a symmetrical spear point with a long central ridge, a black paracord wrapped grip and an open steel ring at the pommel, and each carries a Valknut etched into the flat just above the wrap. The set ships rolled in a stitched brown leather case.

All three are weighed and balanced against each other before they are finished, because a set of throwers that do not match is really just three separate knives. Matched weight means matched rotation, and matched rotation means you find your distance once and it holds for every knife in your hand. These are cut, forged, ground, etched, wrapped and rolled in our Memphis, Tennessee shop, and they carry our lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings, with no end date and no receipt needed.

Specifications

What the Valknut actually is

Three interlocked triangles, drawn either as a unicursal knot made from one continuous line or as three separate triangles woven through each other. It is one of the very few Norse symbols that survives in real archaeology rather than in nineteenth century revival, and it turns up in a specific and telling set of places.

You find it carved on the Gotland picture stones, including the Stora Hammars and Tangelgarda stones, where it appears in scenes involving death, a horse and a hanged or fallen man. You find it on the wooden bedpost from the Oseberg ship burial in Norway, and on a ring from an Anglo Saxon cemetery in Northamptonshire. What links those contexts is the dead. The consistent association is with Odin in his role as receiver of the slain, which is why the symbol reads today as a mark of a warrior sworn to a fate he has already accepted.

One honest caveat. The name is modern. Valknut comes from Norwegian and means knot of the slain, and it was applied to the symbol in recent centuries. We do not know what the people who carved it called it, and we do not have a period text that explains it. The shape and the contexts are real archaeology. The name is a label we put on afterwards, and anyone telling you they know exactly what it meant is going further than the evidence goes.

1095 steel and a satin finish

These are 1095 high carbon steel with full flat tangs running the length of the grip, so there is no joint anywhere in the knife that impact can open up. They are tempered back to 54 to 58 HRC, which is softer than we run a cutting knife and correct for a thrower. A knife that hits a knot or another blade in the target should bend at the tip and be straightened, not snap.

The satin finish is worth explaining, because our coated set is finished differently on purpose. A bonded black coating protects better in wet grass and hides scuffs. A hand rubbed satin does neither, but it lets you see the steel, it shows the etched Valknut sharply, and it takes a patina over years of use that a coating never will. It is the choice for someone who wants the knives to age visibly. It does mean these need oiling more diligently than a coated set.

The paracord wrap is functional rather than decorative. It grips when wet, it dries quickly, it absorbs a little of the shock of a hard stick, and when it eventually wears through you cut it off and rewrap it in an evening. The central ridge in the blade is the stiffening element that lets us keep the blade this thin without it flexing on impact.

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, the leather or the wood. 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 where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On the Stormknot the Valknut is the existing mark, so a custom design replaces it across all three blades. The leather roll takes a name well if you want the knives left as they are. See the engraving page.

Grip, stance and throwing

Start with the handle throw. Hold the paracord wrap in a hammer grip with your thumb along the spine, stand square to the target with your throwing foot forward, and let the arm come straight over from the shoulder without any wrist flick. The wrist is what ruins consistency. Release when your hand is level with your eye and let the knife leave on its own.

Walk back until the point lands first and mark the spot. That is your one rotation distance. Then flip to a blade grip, holding the flat behind the point with the edges between your fingers rather than against them, and find your half rotation range at roughly half that distance. Between those two marks you can hit a target from almost anywhere in a normal garden.

These are functional throwing knives with blunt taper edges rather than cutting edges, which is deliberate. They are not sold as a battle ready or full contact sparring weapon and should never be thrown toward a person or an animal. Throwing knives are regulated differently from ordinary knives in some states and cities, so check your local law before you carry them anywhere.

Care

Satin 1095 has no coating between it and the weather, so the routine matters. Pull each knife from the target, wipe it dry and oil it before it goes back in the roll. Keep a rag with a little mineral oil or camellia oil in your throwing bag. A grey patina will build over time and is protective, so leave it alone. Orange rust is not, and it lifts with oil on a green pad worked along the satin lines rather than across them. Our steel care page has the full method. Wash the paracord in warm soapy water when it gets muddy, dry it fully, and feed the leather roll with a little balm once or twice a year.

Forged in Memphis

Cut, forged, ground, heat treated, etched, hand rubbed, wrapped and rolled in our Memphis, Tennessee shop. The matching step is the slow one. Each blade is weighed against the other two and adjusted at the grinder until all three land within a few grams of each other, which is not something a bulk import run does. Nothing here is drop shipped from an importer catalogue. Expect one to two weeks of processing before the set ships, longer with custom engraving. Shipping inside the United States is free.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The three knives are matched to each other, which is the part that changes how they fly, but the satin scratch pattern, the exact depth of the Valknut etch and the tension of the wrap are all worked by hand and will be their own. Leather takes dye differently on every hide. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Do these come sharpened

No. The edges are a blunt taper. That is standard on a proper thrower and it is what keeps your fingers intact during a blade grip throw.

How is this set different from the black coated one

Same geometry and the same matched balance. This set is bare satin steel with a Valknut etch, so it ages and patinas visibly, where the coated set is protected and stays black.

Do I need three

Most throwers do want three. Two gives you no rhythm and four is more retrieval than throwing. Three is the standard for a reason.

Can I get them without the Valknut

Yes. Order custom engraving with your own design and it takes the place of the Valknut, or ask in the order notes for plain blades.

Will they rust

They will if you leave them wet, because there is no coating on them. Wiping them down and oiling them before they go back in the roll prevents it entirely.

How soon do they ship

One to two weeks of processing, then free shipping inside the United States. Engraved sets sit at the longer end of that window.

What is in the box

• Three Stormknot 1095 throwing knives, weight and balance matched
• One stitched leather knife roll with three pockets
• Care card and lifetime warranty note
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Browse the throwing knives, the Viking knives, the Norse pendants that carry the same symbols, or read the guides.