Broadmarch Hand Forged 1095 Steel Arming Sword | 33 Inch Overall Length | Stacked Leather Grip with Knotwork Engraved Ricasso and Fitted Scabbard | Medieval Gift | RK-1912

The Broadmarch is a broad blade arming sword built for cutting. The blade runs almost parallel for most of its length before turning abruptly into a short clipped point, the crossguard is a plain blackened steel bar, and the grip is stacked leather washers turned down and burnished. A band of Celtic knotwork is cut into the flat just above the guard. It is a plain sword in the best sense, with the money spent on the blade rather than on decoration.

The blade shape here is the interesting part. Most people picture a medieval sword as a long triangle, tapering steadily from guard to point. That is one family. This is the other one, the broad, near parallel cutting blade that shows up right through the eleventh to thirteenth centuries and stays in use long after thrust oriented blades arrive. It is a specialist. Against textile and padded defence a wide blade with a lot of mass forward of the hand does far more useful work than a narrow one, and the abrupt point is not a flaw but a deliberate way of keeping width and mass out towards the tip instead of bleeding both away in a long taper. Forged, ground, heat treated and assembled in the Czech Republic, and it ships with the scabbard shown.

Specifications

What a stacked leather grip actually does

A stacked grip is not a wrap. It is built from dozens of leather discs, each one punched with a hole to match the tang, threaded on wet, compressed hard, then turned to shape on a lathe once dry and finally burnished until the layers stop reading as separate pieces. The result behaves differently from a wooden core with leather over it. It damps vibration, because leather under compression absorbs the shock that a hard core transmits straight into the palm. It also grows more comfortable rather than less as it takes up the shape and oils of one particular hand.

The trade is time. A stacked grip takes an afternoon per sword, most of it waiting, and if the compression is uneven the whole stack has to come off and start again. That is why almost everything mass produced uses a wooden core and a leather cover instead. On the Broadmarch the stack sits between a steel ferrule at the guard and a turned barrel pommel that is peened over the tang, so the whole hilt is locked as one unit.

The steel

1095 is a simple high carbon steel, roughly one percent carbon and very little else, and it is the right choice for a sword like this precisely because it is simple. It moves cleanly under the hammer, it responds predictably to heat treat, and it takes a keen edge quickly. After grinding, the blade is normalised, austenitised, quenched and tempered back to 54 to 58 HRC. That is deliberately softer than a kitchen knife. A long cutting blade needs to bend and come back rather than snap, and a sword hardened up into the sixties is a sword waiting to break.

The blackened guard is not paint. It is a controlled oxide finish that sits in the surface of the steel, so it will wear at the high points over years of handling and go slightly grey at the corners. That is normal and it looks better as it happens.

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. See the engraving page for what is possible.

Handling and balance

The Broadmarch is nose heavy on purpose. Balance sits around five inches ahead of the guard, further out than a thrust oriented arming sword, and you feel that as authority in the cut and as a little more effort in recovery. Let the sword swing rather than muscling it and it does the work for you. The barrel pommel gives the little finger something to hook against at the end of a cut, which is how you stop a heavy blade without straining the wrist.

The grip is a fraction under four and a half inches, so a large hand can crowd the pommel for extra leverage on a big cut. The blade arrives sharp. It is a cutting sword and it is not intended for edge on edge contact against another blade or for full contact sparring.

Care

Wipe the blade with a light oil after handling and before it goes away for any length of time. High carbon steel rusts, and a satin finish shows spotting sooner than a mirror polish does. Sweat is the usual culprit, so oil the blade after anyone has held it. Feed the leather grip once or twice a year with a neutral balm and it will darken slowly and evenly. Do not store the sword permanently in the scabbard. More on steel care is on the site.

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

Each Broadmarch is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so yours will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The leather stack takes colour differently from hide to hide, so one grip runs redder and another browner. Hammer texture on the blade flats, the exact depth of the cut knotwork and the shade of the blackened guard all shift a little. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

How sharp is it out of the box?

Sharp enough to cut a hanging bottle or a tatami mat cleanly. It is not a razor and a sword edge should not be, because a very thin edge on a long blade rolls at the first hard contact.

Is this battle ready for reenactment?

It is a sharp sword, so no. Full contact reenactment needs a blunt trainer with rolled edges built for the purpose. The Broadmarch is for cutting practice, collecting and display.

Why is the point so blunt looking?

Because it is a cutting blade. The clipped point keeps width and mass out near the tip, which is exactly what makes it cut well. It will still thrust, but that is not what it is for.

Will the leather grip come loose?

It should not. The stack is compressed between a steel ferrule and a peened pommel, so it is under permanent pressure. If it ever does loosen, send it back and we will re-peen it under the warranty.

Can I get a name engraved on the blade?

Yes. Runes or a Viking pattern, cut into the flat above the guard. Your engraving replaces the knotwork band rather than sitting next to it.

How long does shipping take?

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

What is in the box

• One Broadmarch arming sword in 1095 high carbon steel
• Fitted scabbard with leather throat and tip
• Care card with oiling instructions
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in arming swords, swords and engraved and personalised pieces, or read the guides.