Grimfell Hand Forged 1095 Steel Medieval Longsword | 47 Inch Overall Length | Ring Terminal Crossguard and Two Hand Leather Grip | Knight Collector Gift | RK-1775

This is a hand and a half longsword of the type carried across Europe from the fourteenth century onward. The blade is long, straight and steadily tapering, with a narrow fuller in the upper third and a strong diamond section toward the point. The crossguard sweeps forward in a shallow curve and finishes in two pierced quatrefoil terminals, the grip is bound in tan leather over a long wooden core sized for two hands, and the pommel is a faceted scent stopper. It ships with a fitted brown leather scabbard with a steel throat, chape and belt strap.

Longswords are widely misunderstood as heavy weapons. They are not. Surviving examples of this size overwhelmingly weigh between one and a half and two kilograms, which is less than a full bottle of wine, and the reason is that the entire design is a study in removing steel. The fencing manuals of the period, the ones written by masters like Johannes Liechtenauer and Fiore dei Liberi, describe a weapon moved with the fingers and the hips, not hauled about with the shoulders. A heavy longsword would be useless for what those books teach.

Forged, ground, heat treated, fitted and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, and shipped with its scabbard.

Specifications

Distal taper, the thing you cannot see in a photograph

Every photograph of a sword shows you the profile taper, which is the blade getting narrower from guard to point. Almost no photograph shows you the distal taper, which is the blade getting thinner in thickness over the same distance. That second taper is what separates a real sword from a length of flat bar with edges ground on it.

Near the guard this blade is thick, because that is where the leverage of a parry is highest and where the sword needs to be stiff. By the time you reach the last third it has thinned considerably, and by the point it is thin enough to flex visibly. The mass that has been removed came from precisely the place that mass hurts most, out at the end of a long lever. Take a metre long bar of even thickness and swing it, then swing a properly distally tapered blade of the same length, and the difference is not subtle. One feels like a crowbar. The other feels like it wants to move.

Distal taper is also why longswords can be as light as they are without being floppy. The stiffness lives in the first half. The speed lives in the second.

The ring terminals and the two hand grip

The pierced quatrefoil rings on the ends of the crossguard are not just decoration, although they are handsome. They are mass at the extremities of the guard, which resists the guard twisting on the tang, and they remove weight from the middle of the cross where it is not needed. Pierced work of this kind appears on real fifteenth century hilts for exactly this reason and it is one of the details cheap replicas leave out because it is fiddly to cut.

The grip is long enough for two hands with a gap between them. That gap matters. The front hand near the guard steers and the rear hand near the pommel drives, and they work as a lever against each other. Hold both hands together in the middle and you lose the leverage that makes the weapon work. Any period manual will show you the hands apart.

1095 steel and the heat treat

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel, hardened to between 54 and 58 HRC. That is a spring temper range rather than a knife temper range, and on a thirty six inch blade it is the only sensible choice. A longsword must be allowed to bend under a bad hit and come back straight. Hardened up into the low sixties it would hold a marvellous edge and then snap the first time it was loaded off axis.

1095 is a plain carbon steel with essentially no alloying beyond the carbon. It sharpens easily, takes a keen edge, and rusts if you neglect it. Every historical sword owner made the same bargain and dealt with it the same way, which was a rag and a bit of oil.

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 longsword there is a great deal of room. A rune line along the fuller reads beautifully because the groove already draws the eye. The flats of the crossguard, the facets of the pommel and the leather of the scabbard will all take work as well. See the engraving page for what fits where.

Handling and balance

Pick this sword up with the front hand tight against the crossguard and the rear hand riding the pommel. The point of balance sits a few inches ahead of the guard, which means the sword pivots around your front hand rather than around your wrists. From there a change of guard is a small movement, not a swing.

The blade arrives sharp and it is a real forged cutting sword. We do not sell it for full contact sparring or reenactment combat, both of which require blunt rebated blades built for that purpose, and edge to edge contact between hardened blades will chip either one. Use it for controlled cutting against soft targets, for solo drill without a partner in reach, for collecting and for display.

Because of the length, check your ceiling before you pick it up indoors. More longswords are damaged on light fittings than on anything else.

Care

Wipe the blade every time you handle it and keep a thin film of oil on it. 1095 has no chromium and will spot from a fingerprint left a week. A longsword blade has a lot of surface area, so use a folded cloth and go from guard to point in one direction with the edge away from your fingers. Our steel care notes cover it in full.

Feed the leather grip and scabbard once or twice a year with a leather conditioner. Do not store the sword sheathed for months. The scabbard is lined, but leather still holds humidity and a blade left in one through a damp summer will come out marked. Hang the sword and stand the scabbard separately.

Forged in Memphis

Forged, ground, heat treated, hilted, peened, sharpened and scabbarded in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing here comes out of an importer catalogue with a logo stuck on the end. Because the sword is made when it is ordered, allow one to two weeks of processing before it ships, plus a few days if you have asked for engraving. Shipping inside the United States is free.

It carries our lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings. If the peen fails, the tang cracks or the temper is wrong, we replace the sword. There is no end date on that and you do not need a receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This longsword 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 quatrefoil piercings are cut and filed by hand and no two sit identically. The hammer texture under the polish, the exact run of the fuller and the tan of the leather on the grip and scabbard all shift a little from one sword to the next, because leather takes dye unevenly and steel is worked by a person rather than a machine.

The steel, the hardness, the dimensions and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

How heavy is it?

Less than most people expect. A longsword of this size sits in the region of one and a half to two kilograms. The distal taper keeps the weight out of the tip, so it feels lighter in the hand than it reads on a scale.

Is it sharp when it arrives?

Yes. It ships with a working cutting edge along both edges of the blade. Open the box carefully and keep it away from anyone who does not know what it is.

Can I use it in a HEMA class?

No. HEMA sparring requires a blunt feder or a rebated trainer. A sharp longsword has no place in a class drill against a partner.

Does the scabbard come with a belt?

The scabbard has a belt strap fitted to it but no belt. We sell belts separately.

Can it be hung on a wall?

Yes. Use two hooks set roughly a third in from each end so the blade sits level and does not sag or creep sideways.

Can I have a name in runes down the fuller?

Yes, and it is the position that suits this blade best. Use the rune converter on this page and tell us the length of line you want.

What is in the box

• Grimfell medieval longsword, 1095 high carbon, sharpened
• Brown leather scabbard with steel throat, chape and belt strap
• Light protective oil coat on the blade
• Steel and leather care card
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See the rest of the longswords, the arming swords, the full swords range, and the guides.