Viking Art Of Sword Making

The Viking sword making process involved a lot of manual work; the blade was high carbon steel heated in charcoal and then forged manually

. The forging was responsible for the long and wide shape of the blade. The blade and fuller was grinded after removing the forge scale to give it a final shape.

Hardening of the Viking sword blade was the most important step in the sword making process. During this step the sword was heated to give it elasticity and hardness. The remarkable thing about the Viking sword making is that the whole process can be easily destroyed. Hardening of the blade required continual heating in red hot charcoal and the temperature was checked by the color of the hot steel, the blade was then immersed in oil in a process aimed at minimizing deformation which tends to occur quickly if the right process is not followed.

Tempering is the second heat treatment that the blade was subjected to, this involved heating of the blade to a temperature lower than the hardening temp and at the same time observing the color of the blade surface. Proper tempering resulted to an adequately firm and elastic blade.

The blade was then grinded and hand polished and oil applied using emery clothes to give it a final finish. The iron guard bore the shape of a boat with slightly raised edges. The pommel consisted of two parts namely: (1) Lobes - top portion with rounded protrusions and (2) Bottom - shaped similar to the guard. The pommel bottom was affixed by clinching the sword tang. The top part was connected to the bottom using two pinched rivets.

The pommel and the swords guard were designed from iron obtained from fittings of an old horse drawn carriage. The iron was last processed by a black smith more than 200 years ago using traditional technology. This means that the source of the material is likely to be much older. From this scrap iron sufficiently large sections for making the pommel and guard were separated by the sword smith. The top part of the pommel therefore shows visible layers of the material that was combined by forging.

The bottom of the guard and the pommel were decorated on both sides using a smith blackened engraving; this is contrary to the original which used Niello, done in an abstract Viking style. The pommel part that wasn't engraved was decorated using a twisted silver wire that was implanted between the pommel protrusions.

The sword grip was designed from a block of beech wood carefully wrapped with a leather strap. The scabbard core was two piece of walnut tree with their opening chiseled to fit the sword. The wood core was covered in calfskin. The scabbard tip was then drawn together using a strap. The scabbard was designed with a copper clip that was meant to be attached to the rear side using two leather straps firmly wrapped.

by: Mathieu Courchesne

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