Haldvane Hand Forged 51CrV4 Spring Steel Blunt Arming Sword with Wide Shallow Fuller & Wheel Pommel | About 37 Inches Overall | Burgundy Cord Grip and Care Cloth | HEMA Gift | RK-3043

The Haldvane is the widest bladed single hand trainer we carry. Lay it beside the other blunt arming swords in this line and the difference shows at once, because the blade keeps its breadth a long way down before it starts to taper, and a wide shallow fuller runs through most of that length to keep the mass sensible. It is a blunt, built for club work and controlled sparring, not for cutting anything.

The hilt is plain in the way most surviving single hand swords are plain. A straight cross of bar section, a wheel pommel peened over the tang, and a grip of burgundy cord laid over wood with a tan leather riser set where the hand sits. The riser gives the palm something to find without looking down.

If you are working out whether a single hand blunt is the right starting point at all, read how to choose your first HEMA sword first, then blunt versus sharp training swords for where a piece like this stops and a cutting sword begins. The rest of the single hand blunts sit together in HEMA arming swords.

Specifications

Every figure below is a nominal build figure. This is made by hand, so treat each one as close rather than exact.

The broad arming sword in single hand play

The single hand sword with a buckler, or with a shield, or on its own, is where a great deal of the surviving European material starts. I.33 puts a sword and buckler in your hands and works through wards and counters with no two handed grip anywhere in sight. Later masters keep the single hand sword in the syllabus even once the longsword has taken over as the teaching blade,.

A broad blade changes how those plays feel. There is more steel forward of your hand, so a cut that lands off line still carries authority, and a bind holds longer before one blade slips off the other. That is useful when you are learning, because a bind that holds gives you time to read what the other person is doing rather than reacting to a blade that has already slid past you. It is also why a lot of clubs put a broad single hander in the hands of new members rather than something narrow and quick.

What you give up is speed on the recovery. A wide blade takes a little longer to bring back to guard than a narrow one, and if your habit is to throw fast and fix it later, this piece will tell you so.

Spring steel, the wide fuller and where the mass sits

The blade is 51CrV4 spring steel hardened to 49 to 52 HRC. That is deliberately softer than the 1095 we use on the cutting swords elsewhere on the site, and the reason is simple. Spring steel at this hardness bends and returns instead of taking a set or snapping under a hard bind. The steel and hardness guide goes further into why hardness numbers matter more than steel names.

The wide shallow fuller is doing the work you would expect. It takes weight out of the middle of the blade without taking away the breadth that makes the piece behave the way it does, and it leaves a section that resists bending edge to edge while still flexing flat. On a sword this broad you need that, because a solid blade of the same width would be heavier in the hand than anyone would want to swing for two hours.

The tip is rolled and flared to about 15 mm across. Tournament tip rules commonly ask for a spatulated or rolled tip of at least 1.5 cm diameter, so this one is built with that in mind, but legality always depends on the ruleset you are actually fencing under and we will not tell you it passes a specific event. Flex is a medium tier. We do not publish a pound figure because we do not measure every blade and we are not going to state a number we have not taken. If you want the tiers explained, HEMA sword flex explained covers them.

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. Most people put a name, a club, a date or a training partner’s initials on the blade flat near the cross, where the fuller gives a clean field. Elder Futhark has no sign for every sound in English, so the converter maps what it can and we cut what it gives back. If you want to read the alphabet before you choose, the Elder Futhark runes guide sets it out.

Engraving is priced by what you ask for. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. All of it is cut in the United States after the piece has landed and passed inspection, so nothing leaves the Czech Republic already marked.

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

This handles like a broad single hander should. The mass sits a little forward of a narrow blade of the same length, which makes the cut feel positive and the recovery feel like something you have to do on purpose. The wheel pommel is there to argue with that forward mass, and the grip length puts your hand close enough to the cross that you can roll the point with your fingers rather than your whole arm.

We do not publish a weight or a point of balance for this piece. The photographs carry no scale, we do not weigh every example that comes through, and a number invented for a product page is worse than no number at all. What we will say is that it is a two hour blade for a reasonably conditioned arm and that the tan riser under the palm makes a real difference to how long that stays comfortable.

Care

Spring steel rusts like any carbon steel. Wipe the blade down after every session, because sweat off your hands and off a training partner’s gear is the thing that actually starts the spotting, not the air in your garage. A light film of oil on the blade between sessions is enough, and the care cloth in the box is there for exactly that.

Store it out of the bag once it is dry. A blade left rolled in a damp gambeson sleeve will find a way to corrode no matter what you put on it. Check the pommel and cross for movement every few weeks, since a peened hilt on a sparring blade does occasionally need attention, and a loose hilt under the warranty is our problem and not yours. Full instructions are in the 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.

If you want the longer version of how the line is sourced and what we do and do not claim about it, the country of origin page lays it out, and order and shipping information covers timings.

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 fuller may run a fraction longer or shorter, the cord wrap will not sit at exactly the same pitch twice, and the burgundy will vary a shade between batches of cord. The wheel pommel is peened by hand and the peen is visible. None of that is a defect and none of it is covered as one, because it is what a hand made piece looks like.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this is sharp

No. It is a blunt trainer with a flat edge land of about 3 mm and a rolled flared tip. It is not sharpened and we will not sharpen it for you.

Whether it can be used for test cutting

No. Blunts do not cut and trying to make one cut will damage the blade and probably the mat stand. The sharps on this site are sold separately and labelled as such.

What flex tier this sits in

Medium. That is the usual club tier for single hand sparring. We do not publish a pound figure because we do not measure every blade.

Whether it is tournament legal

That depends entirely on the ruleset you fence under. The rolled tip is built to the common 1.5 cm minimum, but we will not claim any event approves it. Check your own event gear rules.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. Nothing in this line ships with a scabbard and we do not sell one cut to this blade.

How long engraving adds to the order

Engraving is cut in the United States after the piece arrives here. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49, and the current turnaround is shown at checkout.

What is in the box

• The Haldvane blunt arming sword, about 37 inches overall
• A light protective coat of oil on the blade
• A care cloth for wiping down after sessions
• A care and storage card with the warranty terms

Explore the range

The single hand blunts live in HEMA arming swords, with the whole training line in HEMA swords. If you want a longer blade in two hands instead, look at HEMA longswords, and the older catalogue of single handers sits in arming swords. Everything we have written on buying and training is collected in the guides hub.

Worth a look beside this

If the fit is not quite right, Mirlaug arming sword, about 37 inches overall, Ashgrimm arming sword, about 37 inches overall, Faskvar arming sword, about 37 inches overall and Skelvard sidesword, about 40 inches overall cover much the same ground.

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