Hand-Forged Fantasy Arming Sword, Horned Guard

It is a sword. You will see this style listed as a fantasy dagger, and we understand why — the narrow tapering blade and the compact hilt read as dagger-like in a photograph with nothing beside it for scale. But a dagger is a short double-edged sidearm, generally under twelve inches of blade, made for close work and belt carry. This has 23 inches of blade and stands 30.5 inches overall. Those are the proportions of a one-handed arming sword. We would rather set the expectation correctly than have a customer open a two and a half foot sword expecting a belt knife. If you want this exact hilt and blade profile at true dagger length, our smiths will forge one to order.

Distal taper is the reduction in blade thickness from the hilt to the point, as distinct from profile taper, which is the narrowing you see when you look down at the flat. Almost every serious sword has both, and it is the single most important thing separating a sword that handles from a heavy bar of steel that merely looks like one. Thickness near the guard gives the blade stiffness where the leverage on it is greatest. Thinning toward the point removes weight from the end of a long lever, which is where every gram costs you the most in control. The result is a sword you can stop and redirect rather than one that swings you. On this blade the distal taper is what allows a 23 inch blade with real mass in the forte to still finish in an acute point without feeling nose-heavy. It is also why simply scaling a blade longer without redrawing the taper produces a sword that feels dead, which is why our smiths re-proportion a custom length rather than just extending it.

On a historical sword, quillons that sweep forward toward the blade are there to catch. An incoming edge sliding down your blade meets the curve and is turned outward, away from the hand, instead of running onto the fingers. Quillons angled the other way, back toward the wielder, favour binding and controlling an opponent's blade instead. Straight quillons split the difference and are the medieval default. This hilt uses a pronounced forward sweep finishing in horn-like points, which is a fantasy exaggeration of a real principle rather than a copy of a specific historical hilt — the geometry is functional, the styling is not period. Practically, for a display or costume piece, the forward sweep also does a good job of framing the blade in a photograph.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, oil-quenched and then tempered back. 5160 is the standard working choice for long blades that need to survive impact — it holds a serviceable edge and it flexes and returns rather than snapping. It is also the steel family Nepali smiths have traditionally drawn from vehicle leaf spring, so our forge has generations of experience reading it by colour and by sound at the anvil rather than by instrument alone.

Yes. It ships with a working edge on both sides, sharpened by hand and ready out of the sheath. It is not a blunt wall-hanger with a sword-shaped profile ground into it. If the sword is going into a costume, a display case or a LARP context and you would rather it arrived blunted, tell us in the order note before we ship and we will finish it that way at no extra cost.

Yes. The tang runs the full length of the hilt with the guard and pommel fitted to it, so the whole assembly is held together by steel rather than by adhesive. This matters more on a sword than on a knife, because a 23 inch blade generates far more leverage against the hilt joint than a short blade ever will. A sword with a short or partial tang will eventually loosen at the guard, and that is the failure you feel as a rattle long before anything breaks.

It is forged, hardened and tempered as a functional blade rather than cast or stamped as decoration, and the tang and fittings are built to take load. That said, we would not put an original fantasy hilt into contact sparring — not because the steel is not up to it, but because a hilt designed for silhouette has features that were never tested against another blade. For test cutting on soft targets such as water bottles, tatami or pool noodles, it is entirely suitable with the standard sharpened edge. For steel-on-steel work, commission a purpose-built blunt from our custom forge and tell us that is the intended use so the smiths can build the guard for it.

Yes. Blade length is selectable, and beyond the listed options our smiths will forge to a dimension you specify. As covered above, the taper gets redrawn when the length changes rather than simply stretched, so the sword still balances near the hand. Tell us the length you want and how you intend to use the sword — display, cutting, costume — and the smiths will proportion it accordingly. Going substantially longer will usually mean lengthening the grip too, which turns it into a hand-and-a-half sword; we will flag that before we start rather than surprise you with it.

Yes. A fitted brown leather sheath with a laced throat detail comes with the sword, cut around this specific blade profile rather than being a generic scabbard the blade happens to fit. A belt frog, a baldric or a wall mount can be added on request. If you change the blade length on a custom build, the sheath is made to the new dimensions automatically.

Treat the blade as you would any high-carbon sword. Wipe it dry after handling, because fingerprints are acidic enough to etch a satin finish within days, and keep a thin film of camellia, mineral or light gun oil on it in storage. Pay particular attention to the fuller, which holds oil and dust more than the flats. Do not store the sword in the sheath for long periods; leather traps moisture against steel. For the grip wrap, wipe it dry if it gets wet, let it dry away from direct heat, and give it a light leather conditioner once or twice a year to stop it drying out and cracking.

No, and that is inherent to hand forging. Every blade is drawn out under a hammer by a smith, so the taper, the width at the forte and the exact line of the fuller carry small differences from piece to piece. The quillons are filed and polished by hand, so no two sweeps are identical. Weights and dimensions vary by a few percent either way. What is consistent is the steel, the heat treatment, the construction and the edge. If you need a piece to match the photograph closely, note it on your order.

Hand-forged in Tokha-3, Kathmandu, Nepal, by our own smiths. Everest Forge is a working forge rather than a reseller putting a name on imported blanks — the steel is cut, drawn, quenched, tempered, ground, fitted and sheathed under one roof. That is also why we can change dimensions on a custom order: there is a smith at the anvil rather than a catalogue of finished stock.