Prowshear Hand Forged Damascus Bearded Axe with Engraved Longship | 20 Inch Haft and 7 Inch Edge | Hooked Horn and Riveted Leather Collar and Blade Mask | Norse Gift | RK-2134

The Prowshear is a Damascus bearded axe with a Norse longship cut into the cheek of the head. The ship is drawn under sail, with a striped square rig, a curled stem post and a row of shields along the sheer strake. The head itself is a bearded profile with a long horn hooking up and back over the eye and a broad crescent falling below it, and the forge welded grain rolls in wide bands across the whole face. The haft is oak toned hardwood with strong open grain, and it is wrapped at the head with a black leather collar fixed by two brass rivets. It ships with a shaped leather blade mask.

Cutting a ship onto an axe is a better choice than it first looks, because in the Norse world the two things went together far more closely than most people realise. This axe is made by hand in the Czech Republic. Ransack Viking imports it, checks the head fit, the collar and the edge before it goes on the shelf, and ships it from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse.

If you are weighing this against something lighter to carry, a Viking axe against a tomahawk compares the two. Ships turn up on stone and metal all over the Norse world, and the symbols guide covers the motifs that recur. Lighter heads meant for a target sit in the throwing axes.

Specifications

The ship on the cheek, and the collar under it

A longship was built with an axe, not a saw. Norse shipwrights split oak trunks radially into planks with wedges rather than sawing them flat, which follows the grain instead of cutting across it and leaves a plank that is far stronger and far more flexible for its thickness. The planks were then shaped with axes. Sawn planking does not appear in Scandinavian shipbuilding in any quantity until much later, so every one of those hulls owes its shape to a tool like this one.

The build itself is called clinker, or lapstrake. Each plank overlaps the one below it and is riveted through the overlap, so the shell of the hull carries the load rather than an internal frame. That is why a longship could flex through a swell instead of fighting it, and why they could be built light enough to be dragged up a beach. The row of shields along the strake is a real detail, though it was a harbour and display arrangement rather than something carried at sea, since a shield rack in open water would be swamped and stripped in an afternoon.

The leather collar under the head is not decoration either. The stretch of haft immediately below an axe head is where an overstrike lands, and an overstrike on bare wood is how hafts break. A leather wrap takes that hit. The two brass rivets hold it closed.

The steel and the haft

The head is forge welded from 1095 high carbon steel and 15N20, drawn out, folded and welded again, then forged around the drifted eye and hardened so the edge sits at 58 to 60 HRC. Look at how the pattern runs on the finished head and you can read the forging in it, because the bands crowd and turn where the steel was moved around the eye and stretch out long and even down the beard where it was drawn.

The haft is a dense open grained hardwood with the grain running the length of the piece rather than crossing it, which is the single most important thing about any axe handle. A haft with run out, where the grain exits through the side partway along, will fail there sooner or later regardless of what wood it is. The finish is left natural and it will darken with handling.

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, so a chosen mark on the cheek takes the place of the longship. The haft and the leather mask are the alternatives if you want the ship left as it is, and a rune line burned along a haft reads very well. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

Twenty inches is a long one handed haft, close to the top of what one hand controls comfortably, and it gives noticeably more reach and more speed at the edge than a shorter hatchet. Hold it at the end for power or slide your hand up to the collar for close work. The bearded head keeps the mass concentrated at the edge, so it cuts harder than the weight in your hand suggests.

The edge arrives sharp. Keep the mask on when it is not in use, know where your swing ends before you start it, and treat a glancing blow off a knot as the real hazard, because that is the one that goes somewhere you did not plan.

Care

Damascus is high carbon steel and it rusts. Wipe the head after use, dry it fully and leave a thin film of mineral oil on it, taking care to get oil down into the cut lines of the ship where a rust freckle likes to start and along the seam where the collar meets the steel. The haft wants a thin coat of boiled linseed oil once or twice a year, worked in and left to dry, which stops it drying out and shrinking away from the eye. Feed the leather collar and mask with balm occasionally. Our steel care guide covers rust and edge care in full.

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

This axe is made by hand in the Czech Republic and imported by Ransack Viking. Nothing is drop shipped from an importer catalogue. Every piece is opened, checked and photographed before it is listed, then shipped from our warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. Processing runs one to two weeks because a pattern welded head with cut engraving is slow work made in small runs. US shipping is free, returns are accepted within seven days, and the lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This axe is made by hand, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Every Damascus billet moves differently under the hammer, so the banding across your head belongs only to it. The haft is natural timber, so grain, figure and tone vary from board to board. The ship is cut by hand, so the line weight and the exact set of the mast shift a fraction. The edge length, the steel, the heat treat and the build stay the same every time. The character does not.

Frequently asked questions

Is the longship cut in or printed on

Cut in. It is engraved into the steel of the cheek and you can feel the lines with a fingernail. It will not rub off.

Is the Damascus real

Yes. The head is forge welded from 1095 and 15N20 and the pattern runs through the steel rather than sitting on the surface.

What is the leather band under the head for

It protects the haft from an overstrike, which is the blow that lands short and hits the handle instead of the target. That is the most common way an axe handle breaks.

Is it sharp on arrival

Yes. It ships with a working edge under a shaped leather mask.

Can I use it or is it display only

You can use it. It is a properly hung head at working hardness on a real haft. Kindling, camp wood and general splitting are all fine, and it will hold an edge. Keep it away from nails, stone and frozen timber.

How long does delivery take

One to two weeks of processing, then free US shipping. Tracking is emailed the day it leaves Chicago.

What is in the box

• One Prowshear Damascus bearded axe with cut longship
• Hardwood haft with riveted leather collar
• Shaped leather blade mask
• Protective oil film on the head for transit
• Hand made in the Czech Republic, shipped from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse

Explore the range

See more in bearded axes, Viking axes and engraved and personalised pieces, or read the guides on Viking axe history.

Also in this part of the catalogue

A near match for this one is the Gleambeard bearded axe, forged from 1095. Closest to this in the range is the Stormcleft bearded axe, 28 inches overall. If this one is not quite right, there is the Whorlbeard bearded axe, pattern welded Damascus.

The Stormpoll Medieval axe covers the other half of the same kit. Or start from a blank sheet on the custom Viking axe page.