Serpentcast Hand Forged Damascus Spear | 42 Inch Overall with 12 Inch Head | Ash Haft, Leather Grip Wrap and Brown Leather Head Sheath | Norse Reenactment Gift | RK-1976

The Serpentcast is a Viking spear with a pattern welded head. The blade is widest at its sloped shoulders just above the socket and tapers on straight edges to a fine point, with a raised central rib running its length and a Damascus figure that pools and swirls out from that rib towards both edges. The socket is polished bright and cut with a triangular knot, and it is riveted to a pale ash haft that carries a band of leather wrap below the head and a steel ferrule at the butt. A fitted tan leather sheath covers the head for storage and transport.

The spear, not the sword, armed the ordinary Norseman. Swords were expensive enough to be named and inherited, but a spear needed only a small amount of steel at one end of a piece of ash, so it was what most men actually owned and what most graves actually contain. It was also Odin’s own spear. The Havamal has him hanging on the windswept tree for nine nights, wounded with a spear and given to himself, in order to take up the runes. When a Norse army opened a battle by throwing a spear over the enemy line, they were dedicating those men to Odin before a blow was struck. Serpentcast is forged, welded, ground, heat treated and hafted by hand in the Czech Republic.

The spear was the common arm of the north, not the sword, and the Viking spear makes that case from the finds. The serpent is Jormungandr, who circles the world and bites his own tail, which the children of Loki covers. For more reach and a heavier head, the halberds use the same kind of haft.

Specifications

How a socketed spear head is made

This is the part of a spear nobody looks at and it is the part that decides whether the spear works. The head begins as a single bar. The smith forges the blade at one end and then draws the other end out flat and wide into a shape called the flag, a thin fan of steel. That flag is heated and rolled around a tapered mandrel until its edges meet and it has become a cone. On many surviving Viking heads the seam is simply closed and left, a visible line running up the back of the socket. On better work it is forge welded shut so the socket is a single continuous tube.

The cone is then reamed to match the taper of the haft, the haft is fitted dry until it seats hard, and a single rivet is driven through both. That is the entire attachment. There is no glue, no wedge and no screw thread, and it works because the taper does the holding and the rivet only stops the head walking forward. It is also why a broken haft on an old spear is a twenty minute repair rather than a scrap job. Ours is made the same way, with a welded seam and a single riveted pin.

The steel and the ash

The head is pattern welded from alternating layers of 1095 and 15N20. The 1095 is plain high carbon steel and etches dark. The 15N20 carries around two percent nickel, resists the etchant and stays bright. Stacked, welded, drawn and folded, those layers build into the figure you see, and because the blade is ground with a raised central rib the layers get cut at two different angles across the same face. That is why the pattern seems to flow away from the rib rather than running in parallel bands. It is the internal structure of the bar showing at the surface. Nothing is printed on. The head runs at 58 to 60 HRC, which is right for a point that has to punch rather than chop.

The haft is ash, and it is ash for the same reason axe handles and tool handles have always been ash. It is ring porous, with alternating bands of dense and open growth, and that structure lets it bend a long way and come back instead of splitting along the grain. It is also light for its stiffness, which matters on a spear where every ounce out at the head is felt at the hand. Ours is straight grained stock, finished with oil rather than varnish so it does not go slick when a palm sweats.

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. The socket already carries the triangular knot, so a new design there takes its place. The ash haft below the leather wrap is the best surface for a longer rune line, since there is room for a full phrase and the cut lines read very clearly against pale wood. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

A spear of this length balances a little behind the midpoint, which is where the leather wrap sits, and that is the spot to take hold of it for one handed use. Move the rear hand back towards the ferrule and the point gets faster but the reach costs more effort to control. Move both hands forward and you gain leverage and lose reach. Norse fighting with a spear used all of these, and the wrap is there to give the leading hand a fixed reference so you can find the same grip without looking.

The butt ferrule is not decoration either. It stops the end of the haft brooming out if the spear is grounded, and it puts a small counterweight at the back which pulls the balance point rearward and makes the head feel lighter than it is. This is a sharpened functional spear. It is safe for display, for photography and for careful solo handling, but it is not for sparring and must never be thrown or used near another person.

Care

Keep the head lightly oiled. Damascus is high carbon steel and the etched surface holds moisture in its texture more readily than a mirror polish does, so it wants attention rather than neglect. Wipe fingerprints off promptly, then oil with a rag drawn from socket to point along the flat. Store the head in its leather sheath only for transport, not for months at a time, because vegetable tanned leather holds damp against steel.

The ash haft takes a wipe of boiled linseed or furniture oil once or twice a year, applied thin and buffed dry, which keeps it from drying out and shrinking away from the socket. If the head ever feels the slightest bit loose, do not ignore it. Tell us and we will sort it under the warranty. Full rust and re oiling guidance is on our steel care page.

Damascus wants oil more than plain steel does, because the etch that shows the pattern also opens the surface, and caring for a Damascus pattern covers what to use.

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 Chicago, Illinois 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

This spear is hand made and not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. No two Damascus billets fold the same way, so the swirl on your head will be its own and cannot be repeated. Ash varies from near white to pale honey and carries its own grain lines and occasional darker streaks. The leather takes dye differently across a hide. Hammer texture and the exact depth of the etch vary. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Damascus real

Yes. The head is forge welded from alternating 1095 and 15N20 layers and the pattern is the internal layering showing at the ground surface. You can see it wrap over the central rib and run off both edges, which a printed pattern cannot do.

Can I throw it

No. Throwing a spear with a riveted socket into hard ground is the fastest way to bend the head or split the haft, and a pattern welded blade is far too much work to treat that way. Use it for display and careful handling.

Can the haft be shortened

Yes, and it is easy. Drift out the rivet, cut the ash from the butt end, refit the ferrule and re rivet. Tell us before we ship and we will cut it to your length at no extra charge.

Does it come apart for shipping

It ships assembled in a long box. If you need it shipped as a head plus haft for storage reasons, say so on the order and we will pack it that way with the rivet supplied.

What is the knot on the socket

It is a triangular interlace knot in the Norse style, cut into the polished collar. If you would rather have a different symbol or a rune there, choose the engraving option and it will be cut in place of the knot.

How long does it take to arrive

One to two weeks to make, then free tracked shipping inside the US from Chicago.

What is in the box

• Serpentcast Damascus Viking spear, assembled and sharpened
• Fitted tan leather head sheath
• Care card and lifetime warranty note
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in Viking spears, glaives and polearms, Norse arms and Damascus swords, or read the guides.

Compare it with these

Closest to this in the range is the Ashpoint Viking spear, forged from 1095. If this one is not quite right, there is the Ashfang Viking spear, 60 inches overall. Also in this group is the Twinfang Viking spear.

If you are putting a set together, the Boarcleft polearm sits alongside it. Pick the steel, the length and the fittings yourself on the custom Norse arms page.