Brasshall Hand Made Stainless and Brass Viking Tankard with Celtic Knotwork Band | Riveted Body and Formed Steel Handle | Brown Leather Belt Hanger Included | Norse Ale Gift | RK-1622

The Brasshall is a straight sided drinking tankard built from stainless steel and brass. A wide brass band engraved with a continuous line of Celtic knotwork runs round the shoulder, a second plain polished band runs round the foot, and a vertical column of domed rivets runs down the front where the body is closed. The handle is formed steel with a rolled loop at the top, and it comes with a brown leather belt hanger fitted with a brass buckle.

A metal tankard does one thing that no ceramic or glass vessel can, and it is the reason people keep buying them. Metal conducts heat quickly, so a chilled tankard pulls the temperature of your drink down fast and then reports it to your hand. You can feel a cold beer in a steel mug in a way you simply cannot through a pottery wall. The Norse used horn, wood and turned soapstone for the same job with far less success, and the moment good sheet metal became affordable the drinking vessel followed it. Ours is cut, formed, riveted, engraved and polished in a Czech Republic workshop. It sits in the horn mugs and tankards, a step across from the drinking horns.

Specifications

Why the rivets are the important part

Look at the column of domed heads running down the front of the body. Those are not decoration bolted on afterwards. A cylindrical vessel formed from sheet has to be closed somewhere, and how you close it decides whether it lasts a decade or a lifetime.

A riveted seam works by clamping. The sheet is rolled, the overlap is drilled through both layers, and a rivet is set through the hole and headed over so it swells and locks the two layers together under permanent tension. There is no adhesive to fail and no soft solder to fatigue. The joint is stronger than the sheet on either side of it, which is why riveted vessels, buckets, helmets and cauldrons survive from the medieval period in usable condition while soldered ones do not.

The same logic holds the brass bands on and holds the foot of the handle to the body. A handle is where a full tankard puts all of its load, through a small area, repeatedly, and a riveted handle foot simply does not come off. It also means the whole thing can be taken apart and repaired rather than binned, which is the correct way to build an object you want to hand on.

The steel, the brass and the knotwork

The body is stainless, which is the right choice for a drinking vessel for reasons beyond looks. It does not rust in a wet cupboard, it does not react with an acidic drink, and it carries no taste of its own, so a cider or a sharp beer tastes the way it should. It also polishes to a hard bright surface that shrugs off the knocks a tankard collects.

The bands are solid brass, chosen for contrast and because brass takes a cut line far better than stainless does. Engraving stainless is a fight. Engraving brass is a pleasure, and the metal holds a crisp shoulder on every stroke, which is what allows a continuous knotwork band to read at arm length. The knotwork itself follows the interlace rule properly, with the strand passing under and over itself and returning to its start rather than simply ending where the band closes.

Brass will darken to a warm honey colour with handling. That is not a fault and most people prefer it after a year.

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 brass or the leather. 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 this tankard that means a rune line takes the place of the knotwork on the shoulder band, or goes onto the plain stainless panel on the back of the body where there is a clean field to work with. The leather hanger will take a short mark too. See the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

The tankard needs no sizing but the leather hanger does, and it is worth getting right if you actually intend to wear it at an event. The hanger is a stitched leather loop closed by a brass buckle, so it wraps round the handle and then buckles round your belt. You do not have to unthread your belt to fit it, which matters when you are already dressed.

Measure the width of the belt you plan to wear it on. Standard belts run one and a half inches, dress belts one and a quarter, and heavier reenactment belts one and three quarter or two inches. The hanger is built for the common range and will go over a wider belt rather than around it if it has to.

Hang it behind your hip rather than on the front of your thigh. A full tankard swings, and a tankard swinging into your leg at every step is how people end up carrying it in their hand all afternoon.

Care

Hand wash in warm water with a soft cloth and mild dish soap, then dry it properly. The reason to keep this out of a dishwasher is not the stainless, which would survive, but the brass and the rivets. Dishwasher detergent is aggressive enough to dull brass badly in a handful of cycles, and water trapped behind a riveted band takes a long time to dry in a machine.

Dry the outside, then stand the tankard upside down so the inside drains. Give the brass a wipe with a brass polish when you want it bright again, keeping the polish out of the engraved lines, or leave it to darken. A smear of polish left in the knotwork dries white and then has to be brushed out, so work sparingly. Feed the leather hanger with a conditioner once or twice a year so the fold does not crack.

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 Chicago, Illinois. 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 made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Grain, tone, hammer texture and exact profile vary because each piece is worked by hand from natural materials. Rivet spacing shifts a fraction, the brass runs cooler or warmer in colour depending on the sheet, the knotwork is cut by hand so no two bands are identical, and the leather hanger will have its own grain and tone. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not. Anyone new to this should read the drinking horn and how it was used first, then groomsmen gifts that are not cufflinks.

Frequently asked questions

Is it dishwasher safe

No. The stainless would cope but the brass will dull badly and water sits behind the riveted bands. Hand wash in warm water and dry it, which takes under a minute.

Will it make my beer taste metallic

No. The interior is bare stainless, which is neutral and non reactive, so a sharp cider or a hoppy beer tastes as it should.

Does it keep a drink cold

Yes, noticeably. Metal pulls heat quickly, so chill the tankard first and a cold beer stays cold longer and feels colder in the hand than it would in pottery.

Will the brass tarnish

It will darken to a warm honey tone with handling. Polish it back whenever you feel like it, or leave it and let the tankard age.

Is the belt hanger included

Yes. The brown leather hanger with its brass buckle comes with the tankard and wraps round your existing belt.

How long does shipping take

Processing is one to two weeks in the shop plus transit. Shipping within the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One Brasshall stainless and brass tankard with an engraved Celtic knotwork band
• One brown leather belt hanger with a brass buckle
• Care card covering hand washing and brass polishing
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in horn mugs and tankards, Viking beer mugs, wooden mugs and cups and Anglo Saxon and Celtic pieces, or read the guides.

Also in this part of the catalogue

Worth putting side by side with this is the Hornmoot tankard. In the same category sits the Aleholm tankard.

For a different piece from the same family, look at the Ravencup Viking beer mug. Or start from a blank sheet on the design your own page.