Ashenroot Hand Forged Blackened Yggdrasil Sword | 36 Inch Overall with 29 Inch Blade | Tree of Life Pommel, Cord Grip and Black Leather Scabbard | Norse Gift | RK-1974

The Ashenroot is a single hand knightly sword finished dark from end to end. The blade is a broad double edged cutting profile with a shallow fuller, taken to a black oxide finish rather than a bright polish. The crossguard sweeps forward towards the point in a shallow curve, the grip is tightly wrapped in black cord, and the pommel is a faceted octagon of blackened steel carrying an engraved roundel of Yggdrasil, the world tree, roots and branches worked into a circle. A matching black leather scabbard is included.

Yggdrasil is the axis of the Norse universe and it is worth knowing what it actually holds up. In the Poetic Edda it is an immense ash whose three roots reach into three different worlds, and under each root sits a well. One of them is Urd, where the three Norns sit and decide the fates of men, and the eddas say they pour water and white clay over the tree every day to stop it rotting. That detail is the point. The Norse world tree is not an eternal unchanging pillar. It is a living thing under constant attack, gnawed at the root by a serpent and at the branches by a stag, kept alive only by daily maintenance. It is a very unsentimental image of how the world keeps standing. Ashenroot is forged, ground, heat treated, blackened and fitted by hand in the Czech Republic.

A single handed sword of this class is the usual first purchase, and how to buy a first sword covers what matters. Yggdrasil is the ash that holds the nine worlds together, and the world tree covers what the sources say. The medieval helmets are the obvious thing to hang beside it.

Specifications

What a blackened finish actually is

The dark colour on this sword is not paint, powder coat or a sprayed lacquer, and it will not chip off in flakes. It is a conversion coating. The steel is cleaned back to bare metal and then held in a hot alkaline salt bath, which converts the top few microns of iron into black iron oxide, the mineral magnetite. Ordinary rust is red iron oxide and it is porous, so it lets moisture through to the metal underneath and keeps eating. Magnetite is dense and sits tight to the surface, so once it is there it acts as a barrier rather than a wound.

Two things follow. The first is that the finish is part of the steel rather than a layer on top of it, so the sword keeps its exact edge geometry and the engraving on the pommel stays crisp instead of filling in. The second is that black oxide on its own is only mildly protective and it needs a film of oil over it to do its job properly. A blackened blade that is kept lightly oiled is more corrosion resistant than a bright one. A blackened blade left dry in a damp room will still rust, and the rust will show as brown haze over the black. Keep it oiled and it stays dark and even.

The steel

Under the finish this is 1095, a simple high carbon steel with about one percent carbon. It is the traditional choice for long blades because it hardens deep and predictably and takes a very fine edge. We temper it back to 54 to 58 HRC, which is the right band for a sword rather than a knife. A sword has to survive being flexed and being landed badly, so toughness earns its place ahead of the last few points of edge retention. The blade is distal tapered from the guard to the point so it does not feel dead in the last third.

The furniture is steel rather than brass, blackened to match, which gives this sword a much more sombre character than the usual bright and gold medieval fittings. The grip core is shaped to a slight oval so it indexes the edge in your hand, then wrapped tightly in black cord over a textured underlay. Cord grips are quick to re wrap if one ever wears through, which is more than can be said for a moulded handle.

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 that matters, because the pommel already carries the Yggdrasil roundel. If you choose a different design for the pommel it will replace the tree rather than sit next to it. The fuller of the blade and the leather of the scabbard are both free surfaces, so a rune line can go there and leave the tree where it is. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

The balance point is roughly four inches forward of the guard. The forward curve of the crossguard is not only a style choice. It puts the tips of the cross ahead of your knuckles, which gives a small amount of real cover to the hand, and it makes the sword feel like it is leaning into the cut before you have moved. In the hand the sword is quick and the cord grip is very secure, more so than smooth leather when your palm is damp.

Cut with the last three fingers and let the pommel rest against the heel of your hand. Because the finish is dark the blade reads very differently in low light to a polished one, which is part of why people choose it, but it also means small edge damage is harder to spot. Look along the edge under a bright light every so often. This is a sharpened functional sword for solo cutting and display. It is not a sparring sword and must not be used in contact with another blade or another person.

Care

Keep a thin film of oil on the blade at all times. That is the single most important habit with a blackened sword. Wipe it after handling, then draw an oiled rag along the flats. If the black ever looks patchy or grey in a spot where the sword has rubbed, that is the oxide wearing thin at a high point rather than a fault, and more oil will darken it back down and stop it going further.

Do not clean the blade with abrasive pads or metal polish. A polish will cut straight through the oxide and leave a bright scar you cannot put back without re blackening the whole sword. Use a soft cloth and oil and nothing else. The cord grip can be brushed with a dry nail brush if it picks up dust. Feed the leather scabbard with a neutral cream twice a year and do not store the blade in it long term in a humid room. Our steel care page has the detail.

If it is going on a wall, hanging swords and axes safely covers mounts, fixings and what not to do.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

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. Black oxide is a chemical process on hand ground steel, and the shade it takes depends on how the surface was finished, so one sword can come out a soft charcoal and the next almost blue black. Hammer texture under the finish, the exact depth of the engraved tree, the tension of the cord wrap and the grain of the leather all vary. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Will the black finish rub off

Not in flakes, because it is a conversion of the steel surface rather than a coating on top of it. It can wear thin and go grey at high spots that get handled a lot. Oil brings the colour back down and stops it going further.

Is it sharp when it arrives

Yes, it comes with a hand finished cutting edge. Ask in the order notes if you want it shipped blunt for wall display and we will do that at no extra charge.

What does the symbol on the pommel mean

It is Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree, shown with its roots and branches closed into a circle. It stands for the connection between the nine worlds and is one of the oldest images in Norse cosmology.

Can I get the tree replaced with something else

Yes. Choose the engraving option and tell us what you want on the pommel. Your design replaces the tree rather than sitting beside it. If you want to keep the tree, put your runes in the fuller instead.

Is the scabbard rigid

Yes. It is leather over a shaped core, so it holds its shape on a belt or a stand rather than collapsing. It is a friction fit on the blade and has no belt loops fitted as standard.

How long does it take to arrive

Processing is one to two weeks, then free tracked shipping inside the US.

What is in the box

• Ashenroot blackened knightly sword, sharpened unless you ask otherwise
• Fitted black leather scabbard
• Care card and lifetime warranty note
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in arming swords, Viking swords, Norse arms and swords, or read the guides for more on blackening and blade finishes.

Other pieces in this group

For a straight comparison, see the Fellwhorl arming sword, 36 inches overall. Worth putting side by side with this is the Ivorycrest arming sword, 37 inches overall. In the same category sits the Nightbough arming sword, 37 inches overall.

From the same corner of the shop, there is the Sandspire scimitar. Nothing here exactly right, build one to your own spec on the custom Viking sword page.

If you would rather train with a sword than hang one up, the Molgarth langes messer suits club work, and our HEMA messer range covers the choices.