Runewhet Hand Forged 1095 Steel Elder Futhark Viking Sword | 35 Inch Overall | Grey Leather Grip and Tea Cosy Pommel | Norse Collector Gift | RK-1856

The Runewhet is a single handed Viking age sword with a broad shallow fuller running most of the blade and a line of Elder Futhark runes cut into the steel just above the guard. The furniture is deliberately plain. A straight steel cross of flattened section, a grey leather grip over a shaped wooden core, and a dark tea cosy pommel banded in steel and peened over the tang. It ships in a matching dark scabbard.

Plain does not mean cheap in this period. The Norse put their decoration into the blade and the pommel and left the rest alone, because a sword was working equipment first. What survives from the grave finds is a family of very consistent shapes, catalogued by Jan Petersen in 1919 into types that archaeologists still argue about a century later. The rounded pommel on this sword sits in that late family, the one that runs into the eleventh century and out the other side into the medieval knightly sword. Every part of it is forged, ground, hardened, cut and fitted in the Czech Republic.

Specifications

What Elder Futhark actually is

Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, twenty four characters used across Germanic Europe from roughly the second century to the eighth. The name is simply the first six letters read in order, fehu uruz thurisaz ansuz raido kaunan, in the same way that alphabet comes from alpha and beta. By the Viking age proper it had been cut down to the sixteen character Younger Futhark, which is why a purist will tell you that Elder Futhark on a Viking sword is an anachronism.

We use it anyway, and openly, for one practical reason. Twenty four characters map onto the modern Latin alphabet far more usefully than sixteen do, so a name written in Elder Futhark can actually be read back. Sixteen characters force several sounds to share a rune and the result becomes guesswork. If you want the historically tighter Younger Futhark on your own inscription, ask and we will cut it.

Runes on blades are not invention either. Inscriptions were cut, stamped and wire inlaid into Migration period and Viking age blades, sometimes as a maker name, sometimes as a word or a phrase, occasionally as something nobody has yet decoded. The line on this sword sits exactly where those inscriptions sit, in the top of the fuller where the flat is widest.

The steel and the fuller

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel, quenched and tempered to 54 to 58 HRC. For a sword that band is the right one. It is hard enough to take and hold an edge and soft enough that the blade bends and returns rather than breaking, which matters far more in a thirty five inch piece of steel than it does in a pocket knife.

The fuller is the shallow channel down the centre of the flat, and it is not a blood groove. That name is folklore. A fuller is a stiffness and weight trick borrowed from structural engineering long before anyone wrote the engineering down. Removing steel from the centre of the section while leaving it at the edges is the same principle as an I beam. The blade loses weight where the weight does nothing and keeps its resistance to bending, so a fullered sword of the same length is lighter and faster without being floppier.

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 rune line above the guard is that design, so your own inscription is cut in its place rather than added below it. See the engraving page for line lengths and placement.

Handling and balance

Weight is a little over two and a quarter pounds and the balance sits about four inches ahead of the cross. That is the Viking age feel. These swords were used with a shield in the other hand, so they were made to be steered from the wrist and to recover quickly rather than to be swung two handed. The heavy rounded pommel is the counterweight that makes it possible, and it is also what stops the hand sliding off the back of a four inch grip.

This is a hand finished collector and display sword. It is not sold as full contact sparring equipment and should not be struck against another blade.

Care

Keep a light film of mineral oil on the blade and wipe the steel after handling, because 1095 has no meaningful chromium and fingerprints will etch into a satin finish if left. Do not store the sword inside the scabbard for long stretches, since leather draws damp toward the steel. Feed the scabbard and grip with a leather balm once or twice a year and keep both away from radiators. Our steel care page covers oiling, early rust and how to clean a cut inscription without filling it.

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 rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The depth and spacing of the cut runes, the exact profile of the pommel, the hammer texture under the satin and the tone of the grey leather all vary because each is worked by hand. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

What do the runes on the blade say?

The stock inscription is a short Elder Futhark line. If you want a specific name, date or phrase instead, use the rune converter and it will be cut in place of the standard line.

Is this sharp when it arrives?

It comes with a clean cutting edge rather than a razor edge. Tell us in your order notes if you would prefer it blunt for display.

Is it battle ready for sparring?

No. This is a hand finished collector and display sword, not sparring equipment.

Is the scabbard included?

Yes. The leather over wood scabbard ships with the sword.

Can I hang it on a wall?

Yes. It suits a horizontal wall mount or a vertical stand. Keep it out of a bathroom or any damp room.

How long until it ships?

One to two weeks of processing, then free shipping inside the United States.

What is in the box

• One Runewhet Elder Futhark Viking sword in 1095 high carbon steel
• One dark leather over wood scabbard
• A light protective oil film on the blade
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in Viking swords, arming swords and swords, with rune and typology notes in the guides.