Jarnfeld Hand Forged 1095 Langes Messer with Full Knuckle Bow & Upswept Clipped Point | About 38 Inches Overall | Riveted Scale Grip and Seven Day Returns | Collector Gift | RK-3034

The Jarnfeld is a sharp langes messer with a full knuckle bow. The bow runs from the cross all the way back to the butt cap, which closes the hand in completely and makes this a very different piece to handle from a bare messer hilt. A fuller runs close to the spine for most of the blade, and the point is clipped and swept upward rather than dropped, so the last few inches curve toward the false edge.

It is one handed. The grip takes one hand and no more, so despite the length this is not a kriegsmesser and should not be bought as one. The scales are held by four brass rivets through the flat of the tang and the butt cap is a trumpet, flaring out behind the hand. The edge is ground sharp. This is a cutting piece for test cutting and for display, not a sparring tool.

Before you choose between a sharp and a trainer, read the messer guide and blunt and sharp training swords compared. The blunts built for club work are in HEMA messers.

Specifications

One handed messer with a knuckle bow and what it changes

A plain messer hilt leaves the hand exposed on the knuckle side and relies on the nagel and on good technique to keep it safe. Adding a full knuckle bow is the obvious fix and it appears on messers and on the closely related dussacks and hangers through the sixteenth century. Once the bow is there, the hand is enclosed, and the way the sword is held changes with it.

The advantage is not only protection. A bow that meets the butt cap turns the whole hilt into a closed loop, which means the hand cannot be knocked off the handle under a hard parry and the sword can be swung on a loose grip without any risk of dropping it. The cost is that the hand is locked in place and you lose the thumb on the spine that a bare messer grip allows.

Because this piece is one handed it belongs in the messer and hanger tradition rather than with the kriegsmesser. A kriegsmesser has a grip long enough for two hands and a very different set of plays. Everything in the Lecküchner tradition and the later single sword material applies here, but the two handed messer material does not.

High carbon steel, a spine fuller and an upswept point

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel hardened to 54 to 58 HRC, the same treatment we give every sharp. It holds a cutting edge and takes a good polish. It is explicitly not the steel our trainers use, and the reason is worth repeating: spring steel is chosen for sparring blades because it bends and returns instead of taking a set or snapping under a hard bind, and a blade at cutting hardness will not do that.

The fuller sits close to the spine rather than down the centre, which is the normal arrangement on a single edged blade. The edge side needs all the steel it can get, so the groove goes where the material does least work, up against the back. The result is a blade that is lighter than it looks without losing anything in the cut.

The point is clipped and upswept. Where a dropped clip points the tip down toward the edge line, an upswept clip lifts it, which puts the false edge in a good position for a rising cut and puts the point above the line of the hand on a thrust. It is the shape you see on later hangers and it is the reason a messer of this form feels quicker in the last third than its length suggests. It is sharp, and it goes to adults aged 18 and over.

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.

Engraving is cut in the United States after this messer reaches North Babylon. Runes and text are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. The flat of the blade beneath the cross is the usual placement, and the outside of the knuckle bow will take a short line or a small symbol if you want the mark on the hilt instead.

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 point of balance is quoted for this messer. There is no scale in the photograph and every one is finished by hand, so any such number would have to be invented. Here is the honest account of how it is put together.

The spine fuller takes weight out of the blade and the trumpet cap puts a little back behind the hand, so a messer of this length stays workable on one wrist. The closed hilt does most of the rest. With the bow meeting the cap, the grip can stay loose through a cut and tighten only at the moment of contact, which is how a single edged blade of this shape is meant to be driven.

The one thing to be ready for is the fit. A closed bow is sized for a hand in a light glove and it is not adjustable. A heavy sparring gauntlet will not go inside it and is not meant to, since nothing about this piece is built for sparring. If you have very large hands, measure before you order rather than after.

Care

Wipe the blade down after any handling, keep a light oil film on it and do not leave fingerprints to sit, because high carbon steel etches under salt faster than most people expect. The inside curve of the knuckle bow holds sweat, so take a cloth around it as well as along the blade.

The scales are wood and they want the same treatment as a knife handle: no soaking, no baking in a car, and an occasional wipe with a little oil. Check the four rivets for movement now and then. Everything about oiling, edge care and storage is set out in our 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.

Engraving is the only part of the process done in the United States, after arrival and after inspection.

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.

The sweep of the knuckle bow is bent by hand, so its curve and the point where it meets the cap will differ a little from one to the next. The wood in the scales varies in grain and colour, the clip at the point will sit at its own angle, and the blade may run slightly over or under the quoted length.

A defect is not a variation. A bow that cracks where it is brazed or peened, a rivet that works loose, a soft edge, a bent blade, all of that is covered for as long as you own the piece, with no end date and no receipt required.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this messer is sharp

Yes. The edge is ground and finished as a cutting edge and the upswept clipped point is sharp. It is sold to adults aged 18 and over.

Whether it is a kriegsmesser

No. The grip takes one hand only. A kriegsmesser has a grip long enough for two hands and a different body of technique behind it.

Whether it can be used for sparring

No. It is 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC, cutting hardness, and it must never be bound against another blade or used in paired drill.

What an upswept clipped point does

It lifts the tip rather than dropping it, which puts the false edge in a good position for a rising cut and raises the point for a thrust.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. This ships as the messer only and we do not supply a scabbard for it.

Whether the knuckle bow fits a large hand

It is sized for a hand in a light glove and it cannot be adjusted. If your hands are unusually large, measure first.

What is in the box

• One Jarnfeld langes messer, sharp, about 38 inches overall.
• Care and handling card.
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings.
• Your engraving already cut, if you chose it at checkout.

Explore the range

The blunt messers for club work are in HEMA messers. Closed hilts of the same century sit in HEMA sideswords, curved single edged blades in HEMA sabres, and the cross hilted single handers in HEMA arming swords. The whole line is in the HEMA swords hub and the reading sits in the guides hub.

Others in the same line

From the same run, look at Brenvald langes messer, about 37 inches overall, Brunhak langes messer, about 37 inches overall, Skarnvald grosses messer, about 39 inches overall, Reifholm leather dussack, about 26 inches overall and Draugmar arming sword, about 38 inches overall before you decide.

The whole HEMA messer category and the HEMA sword hub carry everything else in this range, and the custom sword builder will take a spec of your own.