Stormhilt Hand Forged 1095 Steel Viking Arming Sword | 36 Inch Overall Length | Knotwork Engraved Guard and Leather Wrapped Grip | Norse Collector Gift | RK-1772

This is a single hand arming sword of the kind carried from the late Viking age into the early medieval centuries. The blade is a broad double edged cutter with a shallow fuller running most of its length and a rounded spatulate point, polished to a satin finish. The crossguard is a straight steel bar engraved along its face with a running knotwork band, the grip is wrapped in dark leather over a ribbed core, and the pommel is a thick disc that sits into the hand as a counterweight. It comes with a fitted brown leather scabbard.

The interesting thing about a sword of this shape is how much of it is about the hand rather than the edge. Viking and early medieval smiths did not make the pommel heavy to look impressive. They made it heavy to pull the balance point back toward the guard so the sword could be checked and redirected mid cut with the wrist rather than the shoulder. Take the pommel off a sword like this and it becomes a tiring, blundering thing within a minute. Put it back and the same blade feels alive.

Forged, ground, heat treated, fitted and finished by hand in the Czech Republic, and shipped with its leather scabbard and a care card. Filed under the arming swords, and the longswords are the other half of that shelf.

Specifications

What the fuller is actually for

The groove running down the middle of the blade is a fuller. It is not a blood groove and it has nothing to do with suction, which is a piece of nineteenth century nonsense that refuses to die. A fuller is a stiffness trick borrowed from structural engineering long before anyone wrote the engineering down.

Take a flat bar of steel and try to bend it edge on. It resists. Try to bend it flat on and it gives easily. A sword is loaded edge on when it cuts, so the steel that matters is the steel near the edges. The steel in the very middle of the blade sits on the neutral axis and contributes almost nothing to stiffness in that direction, but it contributes its full share of weight. Hammer or grind that middle steel away and you lose a fifth of the mass while keeping most of the stiffness. That is a fuller. It is the same reason an I beam is shaped the way it is.

Because the fuller is forged and ground in rather than milled as an afterthought, it also tells you something about the blade under it. A fuller that runs true, tapers as the blade tapers and stops cleanly short of the point is the mark of a blade that was worked with a plan.

1095 steel and the heat treat

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel, which is close to one percent carbon with very little else in it. Simple steels like this are what almost every historical sword was made of once the smiths could control carbon reliably, and they still make excellent cutting blades. We take it to between 54 and 58 HRC on a sword of this length.

That number is deliberately lower than we would use on a small knife. A pocket knife at 61 HRC holds a wonderful edge because nothing is ever going to load it sideways. A thirty inch blade is a lever, and a lever wants to bend before it breaks. Hardening a sword into the low sixties gives you a beautiful edge on a piece of glass. Bringing it back into the mid fifties gives you a blade that will take a bad angle, flex, and come back straight. On a sword, toughness is worth more than the last two points of edge retention.

1095 will rust if you neglect it. That is the trade for the performance and it is the same trade every historical owner made.

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 this sword the natural places are the ricasso just below the guard, the flat of the fuller, or the face of the crossguard where the knotwork band already runs. Choosing the crossguard means your line replaces the knotwork. The scabbard throat will also take a short rune line. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

This is a single hand sword and it wants to be held that way, with the web of the thumb up against the guard and the last two fingers doing most of the gripping. The disc pommel sits against the heel of your hand and pulls the balance back to a point a few inches ahead of the crossguard. From there the blade turns on a small movement of the wrist.

The blade arrives with a working edge. It is a real forged sword, not a wall hanger with a rolled edge, and it will cut. What we do not sell it for is full contact sparring against another steel blade. Edge on edge contact at speed will chip any hardened blade, and a sword is not a training tool. If you want to cut, cut soaked mats, water bottles or light green targets, with a clear space behind and around you.

If you are new to a sword of this weight, spend the first session simply holding it out at arm’s length and drawing slow arcs. You will learn more about where the balance sits in five minutes of that than in an hour of swinging.

Care

Wipe the blade down after handling. Fingerprints are slightly acidic and 1095 records them. A light film of mineral oil, gun oil or camellia oil on the blade is enough to keep it bright between outings, and a heavier coat if it is going into storage. Our notes on steel care cover this in detail and apply equally to a plain carbon blade.

Do not store the sword in the scabbard for months on end. Leather holds moisture and the tanning chemistry is mildly acidic, so a blade left sheathed in a damp room will spot. Hang the sword and stand the scabbard separately, or oil the blade properly first. Feed the leather once or twice a year with a leather conditioner and keep it away from radiators.

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 Memphis, Tennessee 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 sword is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The hammer texture under the polish, the exact width of the fuller, the depth of the knotwork on the guard and the tone of the leather on the grip and scabbard all vary a little from one sword to the next, because each is worked by hand and leather is a natural material that takes dye unevenly by nature.

The steel, the hardness, the dimensions and the build are the same every time. The character is not. There is a longer piece on buying a first sword, and another on how steel and hardness actually work.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp out of the box?

Yes. It ships with a working cutting edge. Treat it as a sharp tool from the moment you open the box and keep it away from anyone who does not understand that.

Is the scabbard included?

Yes. The fitted brown leather scabbard shown in the photograph ships with the sword at no extra cost.

Can I use it for reenactment combat?

No. Reenactment groups require blunt, rebated blades with rolled edges, and this is a sharp sword. It is made for cutting practice, for collecting and for display.

Will it rust?

It can. 1095 is a plain carbon steel with no chromium in it. Wipe it dry, keep a thin film of oil on it, and it will stay bright for decades.

Can I get a name in runes on the blade?

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page and tell us whether you want the line on the ricasso, the fuller or the guard.

How long before it ships?

Processing is one to two weeks because the sword is made after you order it. Custom engraving adds a few days. Shipping within the United States is free.

What is in the box

• Stormhilt arming sword, 1095 high carbon, sharpened
• Fitted brown leather scabbard
• Light protective oil coat on the blade
• Steel and leather care card
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Browse the rest of the arming swords, the wider Viking swords, the sword stands and displays to hang it on, and the guides.