Hand-Forged Fantasy Sabre, Beaked Pommel

A fantasy sabre. Single-edged blade with a very slight curve, broad off the hilt and running out in a long taper to a fine point, with a sculpted cut-out where it meets the guard. The hilt is where the design lives: a heavily worked steel guard with a closed loop on one side and a swept horn on the other, a domed central boss, a rosewood grip and a beaked steel pommel. Black leather scabbard on a riveted strap rig with a belt.

It is not a reproduction of anything. The blade is a perfectly sensible single-edged cutting profile and the hilt is invention — organic, sculptural, and a long way from any documented pattern. An original sword rather than a copy, and the page below is careful about which parts of it do work and which are there to be looked at.

Forged and worked by hand, and it is a fair question because a guard this ornate is exactly where the trade normally reaches for a casting. Sculptural shapes are far cheaper to pour into a mould than to raise from bar stock, and most elaborate fantasy sword furniture you will see is cast, usually in a zinc alloy or mild steel.

How to tell on any seller's photographs: look for a fine seam line running around the piece where two mould halves met, look for slightly soft, rounded detail as if the shape had been dipped in wax, and look at the inside of tight curves — a casting shows the same surface everywhere, while worked steel shows tool marks that change direction where the smith moved around the form. Then ask outright. It matters because a casting can carry an internal void you cannot see, and on a guard that is exactly where it fails.

It shields the hand on that side, which is a real job even on a piece as decorative as this. A closed loop stops a blade sliding down and reaching your fingers from that direction, and it gives the hand a positive stop so the grip cannot slide forward under a hard cut.

Be clear about what it is not: it is not a full knuckle bow and it does not enclose the hand. The other side carries a swept horn rather than a matching loop, so the protection is asymmetric by design. If you want genuine hand protection, a full knuckle bow can be forged onto this hilt at no extra cost and it suits the style. Say so in the order note.

1,460 grams, and a good share of it is in the hilt rather than the blade. That is unusual and it is worth understanding before you order, because it changes how the sword feels far more than the total figure suggests. A large sculpted steel guard, a domed boss and a solid beaked pommel are a lot of metal sitting behind your hand.

The effect is a sword that balances closer to the hand than a 24 inch blade would normally, which makes it quicker to move and slower to cut. If you want more authority in the cut, ask for a thicker blade or a lighter pommel; if you want it lighter overall, thinner stock through the blade is the place to take it from. Both free.

The standard build carries a 24 inch blade and an 8 inch hilt with a 4 inch grip, 32 inches overall. That is a default rather than a fixed specification — every blade we make is forged after the order, so the dimensions are yours to set.

Thirty-two inches is a practical size: it hangs on an ordinary wall, it can be handled in a room, and it carries on a belt without fouling. A longer blade would suit the hilt well if you want more presence, and the scabbard is built to whatever you choose.

It is a genuine single-hand grip and it works, but it is snug for 1,460 grams and we would rather say so. Four inches gives you a full hand and very little spare, so there is no room to shift your hold along the grip and no room to bring a second hand in behind it.

A five or six inch grip changes that completely, and on this hilt it costs nothing and barely alters the proportions — the pommel simply sits further back. If the sword is going to be handled rather than hung, that is the build we would suggest. Tell us your hand size if you are unsure and we will size it properly.

A rosewood grip with a steel collar at the guard end, a forged and hand-finished steel guard, and a forged steel pommel worked into the beaked form. Rosewood is our default across the range: dense, hard, dimensionally stable and about as handsome as timber gets.

Grip material and colour are both selectable at no extra cost — horn, bone, micarta and leather over timber are all available, and we will match the scabbard to whatever you choose. The furniture can be left bright as here, given a satin finish, or blackened, which suits this shape rather well and is worth considering.

Yes, sharpened along the working edge and ready to use, unless you tell us otherwise. The sculpted cut-out where the blade meets the guard is left blunt: it is not a cutting surface, it is awkward to sharpen properly, and it sits close to where a hand might pass.

Unsharpened builds are free, for display or for an awkward import. So is a stage combat build — rebated edge, rounded tip — balanced for the work. Add that exact wording to your order note.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, which we use across the whole range. The blade is forged to shape, quenched, and then tempered back by hand as a separate operation afterwards. Those two steps are distinct and the second is what matters: quenching alone leaves a blade hard and brittle, and tempering trades a little hardness for the toughness a long thin point needs.

5160 is not stainless and is not meant to be. It rusts if left damp, and in exchange it takes and keeps an edge far better than any stainless we could sensibly forge. We do not make pattern-welded or laminated blades at all, by choice.

Closer to the hand than most swords with a blade this long, for the reason in the weight answer: there is an unusual amount of steel in the hilt. Whether that is good depends entirely on what you want. A hilt-biased sword is quick, controllable and tiring in a different way; a blade-biased one hits harder and turns more slowly.

We do not publish a single point-of-balance figure, because hand-forged work varies and a number two inches out is worse than none. Ask before dispatch and we will measure the actual sword we are sending you, from the guard, and send you the figure. Our sword guide explains what the measurement means and why it is worth asking any seller for.

A black leather scabbard shaped to the blade, stitched in contrasting thread, carried on a riveted strap arrangement with brass studs and a belt with a brass buckle. It is built to this blade rather than to a pattern.

The strap arrangement is more substantial than a simple frog, which suits a sword of this weight — a heavy hilt wants more than one point of support or it swings. Colour, stitching and carry arrangement are all yours to specify, and a wall mount cut to this outline is a custom forge item we will quote.

Nothing is held in stock. Every blade is forged after the order arrives, which is why the dimensions, the grip material, the furniture finish and the edge are all free to change — there is no standard version already made. Standard builds dispatch in 2 to 3 business days; genuinely custom work runs 4 to 6 weeks depending on the queue.

It ships sheathed and braced in a rigid carton with the strap rig packed separately so nothing bears on the blade, by DHL or FedEx with tracking, typically 7 to 14 business days from Kathmandu. Import duty and local taxes are the buyer's responsibility and vary by country.