Emberhawk Hand Forged Damascus Bearded Axe | 20 Inch | Rosewood Handle with Leather Blade Cover and Gift Box | Hunting Camping Collector Gift | RK-404

The Emberhawk is a bearded axe with a layered Damascus head, a 6 inch head length and 5.5 inches of cutting edge, hung on a 20 inch rosewood handle. It is light in the hand for its length, the beard drops below the eye to give a long edge, and the bit is ground to bite rather than bounce. It ships in a gift box with a leather cover over the edge. If you are weighing it against a hawk, Viking axe against tomahawk explains which is which.

The bearded axe is a Norse pattern. The lower part of the bit drops below the eye in a hook, the beard, which gives a long cutting edge for very little extra weight and leaves room to choke up behind the edge for carving and shaving work. On the Emberhawk the head sits on a curved rosewood haft that swells at the butt so a wet hand does not slide off.

Forged and finished in the Czech Republic. It ships with a leather blade cover, a gift box and protective packaging.

Specifications

What the beard and the curved haft do

The beard is the long lower point of the bit that hangs below the eye. It adds cutting edge without adding much weight, and the open hook behind it lets you choke up and hold the head itself for fine work like carving or shaving kindling.

The haft is curved and swells at the end. The curve puts the edge a little ahead of your hand, which helps it bite on a swing, and the swell at the butt gives the hand something to stop against. At 20 inches overall it sits between a hatchet and a full camp axe: short enough to ride on a pack, long enough for limbing and kindling work.

Why Damascus and not stainless

This is forge welded Damascus: two carbon steels, 1095 and 15N20, bonded at welding heat and worked down together as one bar before the head is shaped from it. The 1095 provides hardness and edge holding, the 15N20 provides toughness and the bright line in the pattern, and an etch at the end brings the layers to the surface. At 58 to 60 HRC the edge holds well past what a soft head would manage.

Stainless is essentially never used for axe heads and there is a real reason for it. The chromium that makes steel corrosion resistant also makes it much harder to get hardness and impact toughness at the same time, and an axe head takes shock loads that would chip a hard stainless edge. Carbon steel, and pattern welded carbon steel in particular, gives you both. The cost is that it wants a wipe of oil and the leather cover on the bit when it is put away. That comparison in full is in Damascus versus stainless.

The rosewood handle

Rosewood carries the weight of this piece without adding bulk. It is dense and tight grained, which is exactly what a long haft wants: the density damps the shock that travels back to your hand at impact, and the closed grain resists the splitting that starts around the eye on a softer timber. Every handle is shaped from a different piece of stock, so the figure and the colour shift from one to the next.

Feed it with oil once or twice a year. This is not optional maintenance on an axe. A haft that dries out shrinks, and a shrunken haft lets the head move, and a moving head is how axes fail. Keep it out of direct sun and out of a dry heated room over a long winter. The method is shown in wooden handle care.

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 handle. 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 whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this axe the cheek of the head is the obvious surface, and a rune line running down the haft is the second most requested placement. See the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Three things: file the edge, oil the head, oil the handle. Miss the third and the head loosens in a dry winter, which is the most common way a good axe stops being a good axe.

For the edge, a file does more in two minutes than a stone does in ten. Clamp the head, work along the bevel following the curve of the bit, and stop before you flatten it. Finish on a fine stone or a puck. Do not chase a razor polish, because a fine apex chips on a knot. After use, wipe the head dry, put a light film of oil on it and replace the leather cover. Surface rust lifts with fine abrasive and oil rather than aggressive grinding. Both routines are covered in steel care and sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

The Emberhawk is hand forged. It is not machine made and it is not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. On a Damascus head the variation is more visible than on a plain one, because the pattern is drawn out and folded by hand and lands differently on every piece, and the etch takes differently depending on how the surface finished.

The rosewood carries its own grain and colour because it grew that way, and the exact curve of the bit is drawn by eye. The dimensions, the steel, the hardness and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a good camp tool

Yes. The beard gives a long edge for limbing, kindling and shelter work, and at 20 inches it carries easily on a pack. What it will not do is split heavy seasoned rounds.

Can the handle be replaced if it breaks

Yes. A worn or broken haft can be replaced with a new one shaped to fit the eye, which is how axes have always been kept in work.

How does this differ from the tomahawks in the range

A tomahawk has a smaller, lighter head on a long straight handle and is built for speed and throwing. This is a bearded head on a curved haft, made for cutting and carving rather than throwing.

Will the Damascus pattern survive being used

Yes. The pattern is the structure of the steel and goes all the way through the head, so sharpening and use will not remove it. Heavy scuffing dulls the etch, and it can be re etched.

Can it be thrown

It is not built as a throwing axe. The curved haft and bearded head are made for cutting and carving work. For target throwing, a straight handled hawk from the tomahawk range is the better choice.

Does it come ready to give as a gift

Yes. It arrives in a gift box with a leather cover over the bit and can be wrapped as it is. A name, a date or a rune line on the cheek is the usual addition.

What is in the box

• One Emberhawk Damascus bearded axe
• Leather blade cover
• Gift box
• Protective packaging
• Care notes for carbon steel and an oiled handle
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See the rest of the Viking axes, the Viking knives and the Bowie knives if you want a blade to carry alongside it. Sharpening, hanging and steel care sit in the guides.

Compare it with these

Another in the same line is the Grimhawk tomahawk, 14 inches overall. Next along the rack is the Hickoryhawk tomahawk, high carbon steel. For a straight comparison, see the Thrimhawk throwing axe, 15 inches overall.

The Ravencleave Norse arms covers the other half of the same kit. Pick the steel, the length and the fittings yourself on the custom Viking axe page.