Dawnhollow Hand Forged Fantasy Arming Sword with Brass Cross Hilt | 34 Inch Overall Length | Fullered Blade, Pale Leather Grip and Matching Scabbard | Elven Style Display Gift | RK-1819

Dawnhollow is a hand forged fantasy arming sword with a straight double edged blade, a long narrow fuller and a cut inscription band across the flat just ahead of the guard. The hilt is brass throughout, the quillons sweeping forward toward the point and the butt closed with a plain brass cap, and the grip between them is wrapped in pale cream leather. A matching cream leather scabbard ships with it.

Inscribed blades are older than most people assume. The best known are the Ulfberht swords, roughly one hundred and seventy blades found across northern Europe with the same name inlaid in iron letters down the fuller, made over something like three hundred years. Nobody has ever established whether Ulfberht was one workshop, a lineage, or a mark that got copied by everyone who could hold a punch. What is certain is that some of the surviving examples are crucible steel of a quality Europe was not otherwise producing, and that plenty of others are ordinary iron with the letters misspelled. It may be the earliest brand counterfeiting anyone has documented.

Forged, ground, hilted and finished in the Czech Republic. It ships with the cream leather scabbard, a protective oil film on the blade and a care card covering steel, brass and pale leather. Free shipping inside the United States and one to two weeks of processing.

Specifications

Why brass and steel sit together well on a hilt

Putting two different metals in contact is usually a mistake, because the less noble one corrodes preferentially where they touch. Brass and steel are close enough on that scale that the effect is slow, and brass has one property that makes it worth the trouble on a hilt. It is soft. A brass guard peened against a steel tang deforms slightly into every irregularity of the shoulder and locks the assembly tight in a way a hard fitting never manages, and it stays tight as the leather grip compresses over the years.

Brass also weighs more than steel for the same volume, roughly ten percent more. That means a brass guard and cap of a given size put more mass behind the hand than steel ones would, which pulls the balance point back and makes the sword feel faster than its length.

The steel and the finish

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel, forged to profile, normalised, hardened and tempered back to 54 to 58 HRC. The narrow fuller takes weight out of the middle without thinning the edges, and the blade is left with a mirror polish, which is the finish that hides nothing. A wandering fuller or a soft grind line shows up on a mirror at any angle, so it is the honest surface to put on a sword you have made carefully.

The brass is filed and brought up through progressively finer abrasives to a bright polish. It will darken over months into gold and then into a warm brown. Polish it back or leave it, both are legitimate, but know that the choice is yours to make repeatedly rather than once.

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 inscription band ahead of the guard is the obvious place, and your line goes there in place of the existing one. See the engraving page for character counts.

Handling and balance

The heavy brass cap and guard bring the balance point in to around three and a half inches ahead of the crossguard, which is close for a sword of this length. It feels light in the hand and it recovers quickly, at the cost of a slightly weaker cut than a more forward balanced blade would give. That is the right trade for a display and costume piece where handling matters more than cutting power.

This is a display and collector sword. Brass fittings are soft and are not built to absorb repeated impact. It is not a sparring weapon and it should not be used in contact work against another person or another blade.

Care

The blade is not stainless. Wipe it after handling, keep a thin film of mineral oil or paste wax on the flats and store the sword out of the scabbard in a humid room. A mirror finish will hold a fingerprint as a permanent etch if a print is left on it for weeks. The steel care page covers the routine and what to do about early rust.

Brass takes a soft cloth and a little metal polish two or three times a year if you want it bright. Keep abrasive polish away from the blade. Pale leather picks up dye from denim and newsprint, so store the sword away from fabric and feed the grip and scabbard with a colourless neutral balm.

Made in the Czech Republic

Every piece we sell is made by hand in the Czech Republic. The smiths there work the way the trade has been worked for a long time, heating and hammering the steel, taking the bevels down by eye, and fitting the handle and the leather one at a time. There is no automated line anywhere in it, so small differences from one piece to the next are normal and expected.

Ransack Viking is a United States company based in Memphis, Tennessee. We bring the pieces in ourselves, inspect them on arrival and ship them from our own warehouse. If you add engraving, that is carried out here in the United States before your order goes out.

A note on handmade variation

This sword is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Brass is filed by hand and the sweep of the quillons and the profile of the cap will carry their own small differences. The inscription band is cut by hand and its letter spacing varies. Cream leather is the least predictable leather to dye, so the grip and scabbard will not match the photograph exactly in tone. The dimensions, the materials and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

What does the inscription say

It is a decorative cut band rather than a translated phrase. If you want words that mean something, use the rune converter and your text replaces the existing band.

Is the hilt solid brass

Yes, solid brass, not plated steel. Plating wears through at the corners and edges over time. Solid brass simply darkens evenly and can be polished back whenever you like.

Does it come sharp

It ships with a cutting edge. Say so in the order notes if you want it delivered blunt for a display room and we will leave the edge unsharpened.

Can it be hung on a wall

Yes, and it looks best horizontal with the scabbard mounted below it. Use hooks that cradle the blade at the ricasso and near the point rather than anything that grips the edges.

Will the cream leather stay that colour

It will deepen slightly with handling and with light. Keeping it out of direct sun and away from dyed fabric slows that down considerably.

How long does shipping take

One to two weeks of processing while the sword is built, then free shipping inside the United States.

What is in the box

• One Dawnhollow fantasy arming sword with brass cross hilt
• Matching cream leather scabbard
• Protective oil film on the blade
• Care card for high carbon steel, brass and pale leather
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in arming swords, fantasy swords and swords, or read the guides on inscribed blades and what they meant.