Hand-Forged Khopesh Sword, Hooked Point

Close on the things that matter most and openly different on several others. The length is right — at 24.5 inches overall this sits inside the range of surviving Egyptian and Canaanite examples, where most reproductions are cut down to knife size. The crescent profile is right, the forward mass is right, and the sharpened outer curve is right, which is the single most important detail and the one most sellers get backwards. What is not period: the original was a single piece of bronze, later iron, with no crossguard and a simple grip, and it carried a longer straight section between the hand and the start of the hook. This one has a fitted steel guard and collar, a shaped hardwood grip, and a barb near the point that is a modern addition. We offer a strict reconstruction through the custom forge for anyone who wants the period line.

It catches. A sickle-sword is not only a cutting weapon — the reason armies kept the shape for well over a thousand years is that the curve reaches around things, and a hook on the back edge turns that reach into a grip. Historically the khopesh was used to pull a shield down and out of line, to trap an opponent's arm or weapon, and to hook a man off balance, with the cut following once the guard was open. That is why the shape survived into ceremonial use long after straight swords had taken over the battlefield: it did something a straight blade could not. On this sword the barb is a modern addition rather than a feature of the Egyptian originals, but it is a functional one, and it is the detail almost every reproduction leaves off because it is difficult to forge cleanly.

They are different tools wearing the same silhouette. This is the sword: 18 inches of blade, 24.5 inches overall, historical proportions, a crossguard, a barbed point and a belt scabbard. It is built to be carried, displayed and cut with as a sword. The khopesh-style chopper is the short working version at 10.5 inches of blade and 16.5 inches overall, with a riveted slab grip, a forged ring pommel and a flat belt sheath — a bushcraft and camp blade that borrows the profile because the profile happens to slice green growth extremely well. If you want the weapon, take this one. If you want something to clear scrub and split kindling, take the chopper. Buyers who want both usually buy the chopper first and the sword second.

Neither, exactly, and that is what makes it interesting. It descends from the Sumerian and Canaanite sickle-sword, which itself grew out of the battle-axe: the earliest examples are effectively an axe blade stretched into a curve so it could cut along its length instead of only at one point. That ancestry is why the mass sits so far forward and why the blade is used with a swing rather than a fencer's motion. By the New Kingdom the Egyptians had made it a distinct weapon and a symbol of royal authority — it appears in the hands of pharaohs on temple walls and was buried with them — but it never lost the axe's habit of putting its weight where the cut lands. Calling it a sickle-sword is the most accurate description.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, oil-quenched and then tempered back. 5160 holds a working edge and flexes under load rather than snapping, which is what a heavy forward-weighted blade needs. It is also the steel family Nepali smiths have traditionally drawn from vehicle leaf spring, so our forge reads it by colour and by sound at the anvil. It is a considerable improvement on the bronze the originals were cast in, which was softer and had to be made thicker to compensate.

Yes. It ships with a working edge along the outer curve, sharpened by hand and ready out of the scabbard. It is not a blunt wall-hanger with a sword-shaped profile ground into it. If it is going into a display case, a costume or a setting where an edge is a liability, ask for it blunted 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, collar and grip fitted to it, so the assembly is held by steel rather than by adhesive. On a blade shaped like this it matters more than usual: a hooking weapon takes load sideways as well as along its length, and a short or partial tang will work loose at the guard under exactly that kind of stress. You feel it as a rattle long before anything actually fails.

Yes. Blade length is selectable, and beyond the listed options our smiths will forge to a dimension you specify. The important point on this shape is that the curve is redrawn rather than stretched — a khopesh profile scaled up without redrawing puts the mass in the wrong place and the sword feels dead. That redrawing is included in a custom build. Tell us the length and how you intend to use the sword and the smiths will proportion it accordingly.

Yes. A fitted brown leather scabbard with a riveted belt harness comes with the sword, cut around this specific blade profile. A hooked blade is genuinely awkward to sheath safely, so this is not a generic sleeve the sword happens to fit — it is made around the piece. If you change the blade length on a custom build, the scabbard is made to the new dimensions.

Treat it like any high-carbon sword, with two extra spots to watch. Wipe the blade dry after handling, since fingerprints will etch a satin finish within days, and keep a thin film of camellia, mineral or light gun oil on it in storage. The two places people miss are the inside of the sickle curve and the notch behind the barb, where a cloth skips over and moisture sits — check both every time. Do not store the sword sheathed for long periods, because leather traps damp against steel, and condition the leather once or twice a year so it does not dry and crack.

No, and that is inherent to hand forging. Every blade is drawn out under a hammer by a smith, so the depth of the curve, the width at the belly and the exact shape of the barb carry small differences from piece to piece. Grips are shaped from natural timber, so grain and colour vary. 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 and we will pick the nearest one in the rack.

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 why we can move a piece toward the historical pattern on a custom order: there is a smith at the anvil rather than a catalogue of finished stock.