Hand-Forged Leaf-Blade Sword, Two-Hand Grip

It is a sword, and the fittings settle it. A spear head is socketed or tanged onto a shaft; this blade sits behind a fitted collar on a shaped, waisted grip closed with a pommel cap, and it ships in a scabbard on a shoulder baldric. Every one of those is sword construction. The confusion is understandable, because the broad leaf profile is exactly the shape most ancient spear heads used — leaf blades dominated both spears and short swords across the Bronze Age and the classical world, and the head of a Greek dory and the blade of a Greek xiphos are recognisably relatives. But a leaf blade on a sword hilt is a sword. If you want this same head socketed onto a real hardwood shaft, our smiths will build it that way; it is one of the more common custom requests on this profile.

Because grip length buys leverage, and leverage is what a short blade lacks. Think of the sword as a lever: your leading hand is the fulcrum and your rear hand applies the force, so the further apart they sit, the more control and power you get for the same effort. On a conventional single-hand sword, a four to five inch grip means both the fulcrum and the force are in essentially the same place, and everything depends on wrist and forearm. Put fifteen inches between your hands and you can drive an eighteen inch blade with your whole body, stop it mid-swing, and reverse it quickly. That is why polearms, greatswords and Japanese two-handers all use long grips regardless of blade length. The trade-off is that you give up a hand — no shield, no off-hand dagger — and the sword is slower to bring on line from a resting position. On a piece this size, that trade generally favours the long grip, because the blade is short enough that reach was never the selling point.

A baldric is the shoulder strap this scabbard hangs from — it crosses the chest from one shoulder to the opposite hip, rather than hanging the sword from a waist belt. It is not merely decorative. Baldric carry takes the weight off your waist and puts it across your torso, which is far more comfortable for a heavy piece worn for hours, and it hangs the sword at a consistent angle so the draw is repeatable. It also lets you carry a blade that is too long or too awkwardly shaped to clear a belt-hung scabbard, which is exactly the case with a broad leaf blade in a fitted sheath. What belt carry gives you in return is a lower profile, a faster draw at close range and the ability to take the whole rig off quickly. We build either, and a belt frog can be added to this scabbard on request.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, oil-quenched and then tempered back. 5160 holds a working edge and flexes under load rather than snapping, which matters on a broad blade that carries real mass. 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 rather than by instrument alone.

Yes. It ships with a working edge on both sides, 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 the sword is going into a display case, a costume or a stage production 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 grip with the collar, grip and pommel cap fitted to it, so the assembly is held by steel rather than by adhesive. It matters particularly on a two-handed piece, because two hands generate considerably more torque against the hilt than one does. A short or partial tang under that kind of load works loose at the collar, and you feel it as a rattle long before anything actually fails.

Both are adjustable. Blade length and grip length are separately selectable, so you can move the piece toward a classical single-hand short sword, keep the two-hand proportions as photographed, or lengthen the blade so the reach matches what the grip implies. When the blade length changes, the leaf is redrawn rather than simply scaled, because a leaf profile stretched without redrawing puts the widest point in the wrong place and the sword feels dead. Tell us the dimensions and how you intend to use the sword and the smiths will proportion it accordingly.

Yes, the scabbard is included — red leather with green accent bands, laced detail and a shoulder baldric, cut around this specific blade profile. The colours can be changed on any build: a plain natural or black scabbard, a different accent, or a belt frog instead of the baldric. Dyed leather does need slightly more care than natural, which is covered in the care section above. If you change the blade dimensions on a custom build, the scabbard is made to the new size automatically.

Yes, and the two-hand grip makes it well suited to it. With the standard sharpened edge it will handle soft targets — water bottles, tatami, pool noodles — and the leverage from the long grip gives you far better control of the cut than a single-hand sword of the same blade length. What we would not recommend is steel-on-steel contact work, not because of the blade but because the fittings on a display and cutting sword are not built for repeated impact against another weapon. If contact sparring is what you want, commission a purpose-built blunt from the custom forge and say so, and the smiths will build the collar and tang for it.

Three materials, three routines. The blade is high-carbon steel: wipe it 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, checking the shoulders where the blade meets the collar. The rosewood needs a light coat of hard wax or furniture oil once or twice a year, particularly around the pommel cap where the end grain sits. The dyed leather is the part people neglect: coloured leather fades in direct sunlight much faster than natural tan, so keep the scabbard out of a sunny window, and condition it once or twice a year so the dye does not dry and crack along the fold lines.

No, and that is inherent to hand forging. Every blade is drawn out under a hammer, so the width of the leaf and the point at which it reaches its widest carry small differences from piece to piece. Rosewood is a natural timber, so grain and colour vary on every grip. Dyed leather takes colour slightly differently on every hide, so the red and the green will not be identical between pieces. Weights and dimensions vary by a few percent. What is consistent is the steel, the heat treatment, the construction and the edge.

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 and ground, the grip turned and fitted, and the scabbard cut, dyed and stitched, all under one roof. That is why we can change blade length, grip length and scabbard colour on a custom order, or socket the same head onto a spear shaft: there is a smith at the anvil rather than a catalogue of finished stock.