The immaculately detailed hilt of this 8th Century Anglo Saxon sword is reproduced from the Fetter Lane sword which is a prized part of the collection of the British Museum. Though only the pommel and half the grip of the original survive, these components are in excellent condition and they give a solid glimpse into the fine craftsmanship imbued into the swords which were the prestige of Saxon kings and champions. One one side of the hilt in cast relief are spiralled, serpent-like patterns and on the opposite side there is a bird-like creature in complex knotwork design.
This reproduction has carefully recreated the fine detailing and precision designs of the original and expanded that motif to recreate the rest of the hilt. The blade has been hand forged from high carbon steel and tempered. The finely detailed hilt is quality cast in brass with an antiqued bronze finish and the contrasting silver-like bands across the guard and pommel are of steel with nickel plating to replicate tin. Tin was a prized metal for decorative embellishment on original swords due to its relative scarcity and resemblance to silver. Like original swords of this period, the pommel on this reproduction is a two-part pommel with a separate cap which has been riveted over the base of the pommel.
The sword comes with a matching wooden scabbard which is tightly bound in stitched leather and finished with fittings of antiqued brass. The wooden suspension loop is affixed to the scabbard with thick bands of leather and serves as an anchoring point for the straps for your own baldric or belt to allow for the sword to be worn.
Michael Cunningham (verified owner) –
This sword is a bit of a mixed bag. Overall I really like it – the grip and pommel are nicely done. The pommel is constructed in a period correct manner and it’s based on the top 2/3rds of pommel and grip found in London, which is really cool and a good selling point. The blade overall was pretty well done, with a couple ripples and the fuller was a bit mis-shaped at one end on one side. Unfortunately mine came in on the heavy side. I weighed it and it was 3 lb 6.7 oz. and the PoB was about 5″. I was able to thin the blade down a bit at the top 1/3rd, give it a bit more profile taper and rework the tip into a more realistic (convex) shape and cross section, which brought the weight down to a somewhat more manageable 3 lb 5.3 oz. and moved the PoB back to about 4.5″. This is still on the heavy side but certainly not outside of the realm of historic viking swords (I know it’s Anglo-Saxon, but they’re fairly similar and the timeframe is the same and there’s a lot more data out there for extant historic viking examples). With those stats it’s got a lot of blade presence, but it is fairly manageable (I figure an 80th percentile size and strength Anglo Saxon warrior could have reasonably wielded this haha!). Deepeeka got a lot right on this and I’m happy to see they’re improving their game, but they still need to up their QA/QC on the blades some more to make sure they aren’t way over weight. Overall I’m now pretty happy with it though.