This Viking Sword has a tempered blade forged from 1074 high carbon steel; the robust blade tang is solidly mounted and peened into a hilt with a steel crossguard and pommel. The grip is wood which has been overlaid with tightly wrapped and stitched dark brown leather. The thick tang is quadrangular in form and this tang shape is substantially less likely to allow the blade to shift out of alignment with the hilt over a common round tang.
Included with the sword is a wooden scabbard which has been bound in finely stitched dark brown leather and fitted with a protective steel chape and a wooden suspension loop which is secured with thick bands of leather.
This Viking sword strikes a fine compromise between hard-hitting heft and overall balance and agility. A long blade fuller brings its weight down to less than 3 lbs and has a heft in the hand that feels capable and solid – yet the sword retains enough agility to prevent it from feeling clunky or weighty on the wrist. This point of a balance at around 6 ensures that the main cutting portion of the blade strikes with great and decisive cutting force, yet is not so far down the blade as to make it tip-heavy and onerous on the recovery.
Like many Viking swords of the 10th century, its gently tapered profile and more acutely tapered tip make it a capable thrusting sword as well; particularly over some (often earlier) types of Viking swords with spatulate tips. The curved guard is more comfortable to use than the straight variety and invites more manipulation of the grip and handling with the hand than the rigidly straight varieties.
The hilt of this Viking sword with its three-lobed pommel would likely be classified as a Petersen Type S with a guard which is modified with a slight curve. This change gives it an overall similarity reminiscent of the Wheeler Type VI – altogether, a hilt with these stylings is akin to many Viking swords of the 10th Century which exhibit features common to that period.
Ingvar S. –
The sword called Fjöður Hello I am the Jarl Schildknacker of the Viking Age living history group known as Draugar Vinlands. I bought the original prototype of this sword from Ryan about a year ago. I absolutely love it. It is one of many viking age Sword that I own. It is a well balanced sword and the blade keeps a very nice edge. I named it Fjöður ( Icelandic for feather) because the blade is noticeably lighter than some of the others that I own which makes it a joy to wield. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive but well made sword this is it. I did a bit of customizing to the scabbard by adding a belt harness if you are curious to see how it came out search Instagram for #theswordcalledfjöður
Jack –
Decent sword It is my first Viking sword so bare with me but I love it, really glad i toom a shot in the dark and bought it. Idk who made it but bravo. Get into bastard swords pease! I’d buy one only quick! The only real meh thing is that something aroumd the guard seems to shift when using it, seeing as how every other European sword I own has filler in the guardand handle to fill in gaps,other then this which you could probably fix on your own, deffently worth it. I hope to see more from this maker soon!!!!!!
Drew –
What a gem I’ve been eying this for a while and I have to the quality of this product is astounding for $200 dollars you get a nice quality sword and a wood core scabbard that fits well and if my eyes don’t deceive me their is distal taper on the blade. Overall I’m very pleased with my purchase and I can’t wait too see future swords fafnir forge creates.
Trent (verified owner) –
I received my blade from Fafnir and I was overall mildly disappointed. The other reviews made it seem like I was getting a good quality sword from the maker and so I was excited. When I got the sword though, I noticed that there was a rattle. At first I thought it was the pommel but thankfully it was just the little metal spacer between the pommel and the bottom of the leather wrap. Not necessarily a complete detriment to the integrity of the sword but not something you want to have from a new blade. Speaking of the blade, it seems like there is either small cracks or delaminations in the center of the fuller, I hope it’s instead a product of a less than thorough heat treat and not that but only time will tell. Also the fuller is roughly done and seems to wobble slightly from side to side and favors one side towards the tip. But other than that the sword is okay. I got the extra sharpening and I found it to be just adequate for cutting, the scabbard is good though just a bit loose, enough to wear the sword can work it’s way out when upside down. But for a 260$ sword it was fine mostly, though I was hoping for better.
Brian Bradford (verified owner) –
I coveted this sword for quite a while before purchasing, so my expectations were high. Ultimately it’s the best sword I’ve owned, and I’ve had several: a Windlass Ravenna sword and their Battlecry Longsword, a CAS hanwei tac wak, a Marto ninjato, etc. It’s a lower end sword, but it puts every other low end sword I’ve had to shame. The furniture is simple but elegant…the hilt and pommel are tight. The Kult did a fine job sharpening it up. I don’t know where it was made, but I admire the runic logo instead of “made in India” plainly etched on the blade. It’s the first sword I’ve been inspired to name…I call it Syngja for the way it SINGS when it cuts through the air. It truly feels like the AK47 of an ancient time. I absolutely love it.
isaac (verified owner) –
This is actually the first sword I’ve ever purchased, and I think it is of really good quality for its price point. I spent a lot of time poring over the various Norse/Viking swords on this site, and found Fafnir Forge’s line of swords as a seemingly cheaper but highly reviewed, so I decided to take the plunge and purchase one of them. It took a while to ship, as apparently the sword sharpener at KOA was sick, but it finally arrived after a couple of weeks. The wood scabbard is nice, albeit after drawing the sword from it a bunch it has become slightly loose.
The sword itself feels really nice in the hands, and feels like it’s solidly built. After stress testing it for a while it held up nicely vs various fruits and other random objects. Wielding it really made me appreciate how deadly these things actually were back in their heyday, and even now. No complaints other than the wait time, excellent quality, great price.