Brunhak Hand Forged 51CrV4 Spring Steel Langes Messer Trainer with Large Ring Nagel & Clipped Point | About 37 Inches Overall | Pale Wood Scales and Blunt Edge | HEMA Gift | RK-3019

The langes messer is a full sized fighting sword that insists on being called a knife. One edge, a slab tang with scales riveted to it like a kitchen tool, a nagel standing out sideways over your hand, and a blade long enough to fence anyone carrying a sword. Germany produced an entire fencing system for it, and the Brunhak is built to work that system rather than to sit in a display case.

The nagel on this one is a large ring rather than a bar, which is the better version if you actually fence. It covers more of the hand, it gives a cut sliding down the blade somewhere to stop, and it does not turn an edge into your knuckles the way a short spike can. Three brass rivets hold the pale wood scales through the tang, and the butt cap is a beak, hooked back over the heel of the hand so the messer does not slide out under a hard cut.

The blade is blunt, forged in 51CrV4 spring steel at 49 to 52 HRC, with a flat edge land and a clipped point rolled off so it cannot bite. The messer guide covers the whole family and what is HEMA is the starting point if this is new to you. Every one we make is on the HEMA messers page.

Specifications

The langes messer and the fencing of Johannes Leckuchner

Johannes Leckuchner finished his enormous messer treatise in 1478 and it is still the deepest single source on any European sword. Over four hundred plays for one single edged blade held in one hand, built on the same skeleton as the Liechtenauer longsword material but rewritten for a sword with one edge, a nagel and a free left hand. The master strikes have their own names here. The zornhau comes down across the line, the zwerchhau turns flat and covers overhead, the wecker wakes the opponent out of his guard, the entrusthaw strikes from the false edge, and the guards, luginsland, stier, eber, bastei, are the messer own rather than borrowed.

What makes the system worth training is the free hand. Because there is no second hand on the grip, Leckuchner spends play after play on what the left hand does: catching a wrist, pressing an arm, taking the opponent blade, throwing him over a leg. Messer fencing collapses into grappling faster than longsword does and it teaches distance harder as a result. The nagel matters in that context too, because at the range where you can grab a wrist your hand is well inside the other fencer reach, and a ring over the knuckles is the only thing standing between a short cut and a broken finger.

The ring nagel, the clipped point and the spring steel blade

A ring nagel is a different animal from the little bar you see on cheaper messers. It stands proud of the flat on the right of the hilt and comes back round into the tang, forming a closed loop, so a cut sliding down the blade is trapped by the loop rather than deflected off a spike towards your fingers. It also gives you something to index against, which is why fencers who have used both usually stop going back. The beak butt cap works with it, hooking over the heel of your hand so the messer stays seated when you cut hard or when someone takes hold of your arm.

The clipped point is the messer signature. The spine is cut away at an angle near the end and a false edge is carried along the clip, which brings the point down into line with the cutting edge and gives you something to thrust with off a cut. On a trainer that clip is rolled and blunted to about 15 mm across so it spreads a thrust rather than concentrating it. The whole blade is 51CrV4 hardened to 49 to 52 HRC because that is the range in which spring steel bends under a hard bind and comes back straight. Our sharps run 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC, which is right for cutting tatami and wrong for being hit by a partner. If flex tiers are new to you, HEMA sword flex explained sets them out.

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 or the grip. Club names, a founding year, a line from the source you train out of, all of it works.

Engraving is done in the United States after the piece lands in North Babylon, so nothing is cut until you have told us what you want. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. If you would rather have your own design 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. More on the engraving page.

Handling and balance

No weight and no balance point is published here. We have not measured this messer and we will not repeat a number from somewhere else. What it does in the hand is sit lively and forward, the way a single edged blade of this length should, with enough presence in the last third to make a cut land properly and enough control behind the nagel to recover it. The scales are slab sided rather than contoured, which is correct for the type, and they let you rotate the messer in the hand to change the line of the edge without regripping. The beak cap catches your palm on the pull. Fencers coming off a longsword usually find the first session odd and the second one obvious.

Care

Wood scales and steel want slightly different things. Keep the blade wiped and lightly oiled after every session, and do not let water sit around the rivets, because that is where a scale will eventually lift if you neglect it. Pale wood shows finger marks and a light wax once or twice a year keeps it looking honest. Check the rivets for movement every few weeks and tell us if one works loose, because that is a fitting and fittings are covered by the warranty for life. Take burrs off the edge land with a fine file and keep the land flat, and never sharpen a trainer for any reason. The full routine sits in the blade care guide.

Made in the Czech Republic

Made by hand in the Czech Republic and imported by Ransack Viking. Nothing here is drop shipped out of an importer catalogue straight to a customer. Every one is checked for hilt tightness, pommel seating and blade straightness at our North Babylon, New York warehouse, and ships from there. Shipping in the United States is free, returns run for seven days, and the lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand forged. It is not machine made, not cast and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. Wood is a natural material, so grain, colour and figure differ on every set of scales and no two messers look quite alike at the grip. The reach of the ring nagel and the shape of the beak cap are filed by hand as well. Steel, hardness range, blunt land and rolled clip stay the same, and those are the parts that matter in a bout.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this messer is sharp

No. The edge is left as a flat blunt land of about 3 mm and the clipped point is rolled off. It is a trainer for drill and sparring. We do sell sharp messers for test cutting, but they are separate pieces in 1095 and they are described that way.

What a nagel actually does

It is the hand protection on a messer. This one is a large ring standing out over the flat of the hilt, which traps a blade sliding down the edge instead of steering it into your fingers, and gives your hand a reference point on the grip.

What flex tier this blade sits in

Medium, which is the band clubs use for messer work. We name a tier rather than a number in pounds because this individual blade has not been put on a flex rig and a guessed figure would be worthless.

Whether it is allowed in competition

Check the ruleset you are fencing under, every event writes its own gear requirements. The clip is rolled to about 15 mm across, which clears the 1.5 cm minimum the Berlin HEMA Cup uses, but we never call a piece tournament legal without naming the ruleset that allows it.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. This ships as a messer only. Nothing in the HEMA range comes with a scabbard.

Who this messer suits

Anyone getting into Leckuchner or the broader German tradition, longsword fencers who want a single handed sword that uses the same grammar, and clubs that need a durable loan piece for messer classes.

What is in the box

• The Brunhak langes messer trainer, blunt, blade about 28 inches
• A warranty card covering the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings, with no end date
• Care notes for the spring steel blade and the riveted wood scales
• Your engraving already cut into the piece, if you chose one at checkout

Explore the range

There is a whole shelf of these. The HEMA messers run from short bauernwehr up to kriegsmesser, the messers shelf holds the wider collection, the HEMA longswords cover the two handed side of the same German material, and everything blunt is listed in the HEMA swords hub. Reading starts at the guides hub.

Worth a look beside this

If the fit is not quite right, Skarnvald grosses messer, about 39 inches overall, Molgarth langes messer, about 35 inches overall, Aurnvik langes messer, about 35 inches overall and Sturvang three bar sabre, about 37 inches overall cover much the same ground.

Browse the HEMA messer category or step up to the HEMA sword hub for the complete set, or start from scratch on the custom sword builder.