Vulkbrand Hand Forged 51CrV4 Steel Flame Bladed Greatsword with Parierhaken & Scrolled Quillons | About 66 Inches Overall | Leather Ricasso and Blunt Blade | Collector Gift | RK-3028

A flame bladed greatsword, waved along both edges from the parierhaken to the point. The blade itself is straight. The wave is ground into the edges and does not curve the sword, so this is nothing like a sabre and it does not handle like one. It stands about 66 inches overall, hand made so it varies a little piece to piece.

Everything above the hilt is built the way the sixteenth century two handers were built. A long leather wrapped ricasso runs ahead of the quillons so the forward hand can take the blade, and a pair of parierhaken, the parrying hooks, stand at its head as a second guard. The quillons are long and straight with scrolled tips, and a side ring sits on one face. The steel is blunted 51CrV4 throughout.

If two handers are new to you, read what is HEMA and then display sword and battle ready compared, because a sword this size is bought for very different reasons by different people. The wider shelf is in flamberge swords.

Specifications

What we can state without guessing. Lengths are approximate because every one is forged and fitted by hand, and anything we do not know is written as not listed rather than invented.

The two hander in the Iberian and German sources

Two written traditions carry the two handed sword properly. The Iberian one is the montante, and the clearest text on it is Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo’s Memorial da Prattica do Montante of 1651, a book of numbered rules for fighting several opponents, guarding a doorway and clearing a street. Domingo Luis Godinho covers similar ground earlier. It is practical work and almost entirely solo form.

The German one runs through the Landsknecht companies and the doppelsoldner who carried the great sword for double pay, and Paulus Hector Mair writes it down most fully in the middle of the sixteenth century. Mair’s two hander plays are a proper fencing system with wards, strikes and half sword work, and they assume exactly the features on this sword: quillons long enough to hook and to bind, a ricasso you can grip, and hooks above it to stop a blade travelling down onto your hands.

The flame bladed version belongs mostly to the later part of that story, when the two hander had moved from the pike block to the parade ground and the bodyguard. Wave ground blades survive in numbers in guard armouries across central Europe. They stood behind princes and were made to be looked at as well as used.

One thing to be plain about: the story that a wave bladed sword cuts wounds which will not close is folklore. What the wave does is put more edge length into the same blade and give it a distinctive bite when it slides along another blade. That is reason enough for it to exist.

Wave ground edges, the parierhaken and the leather ricasso

51CrV4 spring steel hardened to 49 to 52 HRC. On a blade this long the choice is not really a choice. A hard blade at 54 to 58 HRC would be a liability at four feet, because the stresses a long blade sees under its own leverage are the ones that crack hard steel. Spring steel bends and returns. Our cutting swords use 1095 at the higher hardness and they are much shorter for good reason.

Grinding a wave into both edges is slow work and it is why a flame bladed sword costs more than a straight one of the same size. Each scallop has to match its opposite across the blade or the sword looks wrong from six feet away, and the edge land has to stay even round every curve. That is file and stone work, and it is why no two are identical.

The parierhaken are the feature that separates a proper two hander from a long sword shaped ornament. They are two hooks standing out at the top of the ricasso. They stop an opposing blade sliding into your forward hand, they let you catch and trap a blade, and they mark where you may safely grip. The leather wrap below them exists for that grip. Take the ricasso in the forward hand and the sword shortens by a foot and a half and becomes usable at close measure.

Flex is stiff, which is correct for the type and which also means this is not a sparring blade. A two hander of this length is used for solo form, for the montante rules, for drill and for display. Do not thrust it at a training partner. If you want steel to spar with, the feders and longswords are the right shelf: blunt and sharp training swords sets out the difference.

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. 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.

There is more clean steel on this sword than on anything else we sell. A rune line runs well along the flat of the ricasso below the parierhaken, and the scrolled quillon tips will each take a short mark. A family crest sits best on the ricasso. Tell us where you want it and we will lay it out to read with the sword point up.

Handling and balance

Two hands behind the quillons for the wide work, and the forward hand up on the leather ricasso for anything close. That shift is the whole technique of the two hander and it is why the ricasso is wrapped. The scrolled quillon tips are there to stop a bound blade running off the end of the cross, and the side ring gives the leading hand a little more cover when the sword is held in the half sword.

It moves in long arcs. Figueyredo’s rules are written around that: keep the blade turning rather than stopping and starting it, and the sword does most of the work once it is moving. Clear a wide space before you pick it up. We publish no weight or point of balance, because every one is finished by hand and a figure would be a guess dressed up as a specification.

Care

A waved edge collects more than a straight one. Run an oiled rag into every scallop rather than wiping straight down the blade, because the inside of each curve is where moisture stays. Mineral or camellia oil is fine and a soft toothbrush makes the job quicker.

The leather on the ricasso wants to stay dry and it will darken with handling, which is normal. Wall mounts for a sword this size need two points of support, never one, and the blade should sit edge up so the mount is not holding it by a waved edge. Check the peening and the quillon seating every few months. The full routine is in the knife 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 flame bladed two hander takes more hours than anything else we import. It ships in a long box with the blade braced along its whole length and is checked for straightness at North Babylon before it goes out.

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.

On a sword this size that shows most in the waves. The number of scallops, their depth and exactly where the grind runs out near the point will differ from the photograph. The blade length, the parierhaken and the scrolled quillons are consistent. The waves are cut by hand and they are the signature of the person who cut them.

Frequently asked questions

Is this sword curved

No. The blade runs straight. The waves are ground into the edges and the spine holds a straight line, so it is not a sabre and it does not handle like one.

What are the hooks above the grip for

Those are the parierhaken. They stop an opposing blade running down the ricasso onto the forward hand, they let you catch and trap a blade, and they mark where it is safe to grip past the quillons.

Can I spar with it

No, and we would rather say so. It is stiff, it is about 66 inches overall and it is made for solo form, drill and display. The feders and blunt longswords are the shelf for partner work.

Does the wave blade cut differently

It puts more edge length into the same blade and it bites when it slides along another blade. The stories about wounds that will not close are folklore and we are not going to repeat them.

Is it sharp

No. It is blunted with a flat land on the edge and a rounded point. It is not a cutting sword.

Can it be engraved

Yes, and the ricasso is the best surface for it. Elder Futhark runes or your own design, cut in the United States after arrival. Text and runes are 19 dollars, a symbol 39 dollars, a family crest 49 dollars.

What is in the box

• One Vulkbrand flame bladed greatsword, about 66 inches overall
• A light coat of protective oil on the blade for transit
• Care and warranty details for the piece
• Ransack Viking long box packaging, inspected and shipped from North Babylon, New York

Explore the range

More two handed steel sits in flamberge swords and zweihanders. For steel you can actually spar with, see feders and HEMA swords. Everything we have written is collected in the guides hub.

Other pieces in this group

In this part of the line you will also find Nattvarn hand and a half, about 48 inches overall, Storvekk kriegsmesser, about 44 inches overall, Tevrand nylon waster, about 47 inches overall, Skarnvald grosses messer, about 39 inches overall and Drakvend longsword, about 49 inches overall.

Everything else sits across the HEMA sword hub, and the custom sword builder builds to your own numbers.