Fletchbane Hand Forged Damascus Viking Arrowhead Set | Six Socketed Broadheads | 1095 and 15N20 Damascus Steel with Rolled Leather Case | Archery and Norse Gift | RK-1631

This is a set of six hand forged Damascus arrowheads in the socketed Norse pattern. Each one is a broad barbed head with a hollow forged ferrule at the base that slips over the front of a wooden shaft. The blades are ground from a billet of 1095 and 15N20 layered steel, so the flowing light and dark banding running across every face is the structure of the steel itself and not a printed or sprayed surface effect. They arrive as a matched set of six in a rolled leather case that ties shut with a wrapped thong.

The socket is one of the quiet technical markers of Viking age and wider northern European archery. Instead of cutting a slot in the end of the shaft and gluing a flat tang into it, which weakens the shaft exactly where the load is highest, the smith wrapped hot steel around a mandrel to form a cone and the shaft was driven up into it. The wood then sits in compression inside a steel collar rather than being split open, and a head that works loose can be reseated instead of rebuilt. Every head in this set is forged, ground, hardened and etched in our Memphis shop, and the set ships in its leather roll under our lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings.

Specifications

Why a socketed head and what the barbs do

Look at the base of each head and you will see a short cone with an open mouth rather than a flat spike. That cone is the socket. It is forged by drawing the metal out thin, wrapping it around a tapered mandrel and closing the seam, and it is the reason so many surviving Scandinavian heads are still intact while the shafts they sat on are long gone. The socket carries load in compression across the whole circumference of the shaft, and it also lets a head be pulled and refitted to a new shaft without any glue at all.

The barbs are the two swept points that flare back from the widest part of the blade. On a hunting head they resist the head backing out of the wound channel. On a target or collector head they mostly tell you what tradition the shape belongs to, because the long swept barb with a narrow waist is a very particular northern European silhouette and it is quite different from the short triangular bodkin or the plain needle point used against mail. We sell these as collector, display and traditional archery pieces. Broadhead rules for hunting vary from state to state, so check your own regulations before you take any broadhead into the field.

The steel and the pattern

Each billet is stacked from alternating layers of 1095 high carbon steel and 15N20, a nickel bearing steel. The two react differently to the etch, and that difference is what you are looking at when you see the pale and dark bands. The billet is forge welded, drawn out, cut, folded and welded again to multiply the layer count, then the heads are cut and ground from it. Because the heads are ground from a single billet, the pattern flows differently across each of the six, which is why no two in your set will read the same.

After grinding the heads are normalised, quenched and tempered to 58 to 60 HRC. That is hard enough to take and hold a working edge and still tough enough that a barb will bend before it snaps off. The heads are then etched in acid to lift the contrast and neutralised and oiled before they go into the case.

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 a set like this the usual choice is a short line on the leather case, or a single rune on each socket. See the engraving page for what fits where.

Fitting a head to a shaft

Because every socket is hand formed, the internal diameter of each one differs slightly. Measure the mouth of the socket with calipers before you commit to a shaft size, then taper the front of the shaft with a rasp or a taper tool until the head seats with light hand pressure and about a quarter inch of shaft still showing daylight inside the socket. Traditional practice is a hot pitch or hide glue set, with a single small pin through the socket wall on a head that will actually be shot. If you are mounting these for display, a dry press fit into a dowel is enough and it lets you take them apart again.

Take the barbs seriously when you handle them. They are ground sharp on the leading bevels and they will catch skin on the way past even when the point itself is not doing anything.

Care

Damascus is high carbon steel and it will rust if it is left wet or handled and put away. Wipe each head after handling and put a thin film of mineral oil, camellia oil or a light gun oil on the blade and inside the socket before it goes back in the roll. If you get surface spotting, a nylon pad and oil will lift it without pulling the etch. Never put these in a dishwasher and never leave them sitting in the leather case damp, because vegetable tanned leather holds moisture against steel. More detail is on our steel care page.

Forged in Memphis

These are forged, ground, heat treated and etched in our own shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing here is pulled from an importer catalogue and relabelled. The practical result is a lead time rather than a warehouse shelf, so allow one to two weeks of processing before the set ships, and a little longer if you have added engraving. Shipping inside the United States is free. The lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

These are hand made, not machine made and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The Damascus pattern flows differently across every head, the etch takes with slightly different contrast from batch to batch, the barbs are ground by eye so their sweep varies by a fraction, and the leather roll is cut from natural hide that carries its own grain and tone. The material, the layer construction, the heat treat and the set count are the same every time. The character is not, and that is the point of buying forged work rather than stamped work.

Frequently asked questions

Are the arrowheads sharp when they arrive

They arrive with a working edge on the bevels and a sharp point. They are not razor honed the way we finish a skinning knife, because a broadhead that is going to be mounted usually gets its final edge from the owner after fitting.

Will these fit standard carbon or aluminium arrow shafts

No. These are socketed heads for wooden shafts. They have no threaded insert and they will not screw into a modern arrow. If you shoot carbon or aluminium, treat these as display and collection pieces.

Is this real Damascus or an etched pattern

It is real pattern welded steel, forge welded from 1095 and 15N20. Grind the surface back and the pattern is still there in the cross section, which is not true of a printed or laser etched imitation.

Can I hunt with them

That depends entirely on where you live. Broadhead width, blade count and cutting diameter are all regulated differently by state and by country, and we make no claim that these meet any particular jurisdiction. Check your own rules first.

Will all six look the same

No, and they are not meant to. They come from the same billet and the same heat treat, but the pattern reads differently on each head and the barb sweep varies slightly because they are ground by hand.

How long before it ships

Processing is one to two weeks, then free shipping inside the United States. Adding a rune line or a custom engraving usually adds a few days.

What is in the box

• Six hand forged 1095 and 15N20 Damascus socketed broadheads
• Rolled leather case with a wrap tie
• Care card for high carbon Damascus steel
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Look through the Viking weapons, the Viking spears and the accessories, or read the guides for how socketed heads were made and fitted.