Ursus: Weapons

"A little apart the Rangers sat, silent, in an ordered company, armed with spear and bow and sword."

Cadeyrn


My great war sword. Forged By Mr. John Lundemo of Odinblades. This sword Is. My. Life. I have trained and studied western sword use now for over 17 years. Never having much love for narrower cut and thrust styles of blade I commissioned John to make this beauty of a war sword. It is 52 inches overall with a point of balance 4 inches up from the guard. Forged from 5160H steel and tempered using Johns secret tempering process. It weighs in at 4 1/2 lbs. It is a little over 2 inches wide at the base and tapers to a mean spike of a tip. Its fittings are a strong alloy of bronze that I keep aged. I chose bronze for several reasons. One I prefer the color scheme over steel. Two when traveling and being outside with it as much as I am there is no need to worry about rust, either from the elements or the salts on my hands during handling.

The grip was done by me. It is a pineapple grooved wood core with a fine grained shark skin wet molded over top. While still wet I took hand braided bronze jewelers wire and fitted it into the grooves. I then reassembled the sword, which at the time had a counter sunk nut assembly. I epoxied the nut and tightened it into place. Then I took a jeweler's saw and cut through the nut flush with the pommel, but left the threaded part of the tang. I unscrewed the sawn nut and peened the protruding part of the tang thus giving it a kind of double peen. This is my personal sword and the only one I will carry. It is handled and trained with daily. In short where ever I go it goes as well.

Hawk


My hawk is a Cold Steel's Norse Hawk. I cut down the bulky socket to give it more speed and make it less modern looking. I made a scabbard for it that attaches directly to my belt on my right side. I prefer this over a simple blade cover as I can access it in seconds without having to stop and remove a blade cover. Instead with a quick push up on the handle I can pop it straight into my hand and into an up and ready position to either throw or strike with. It handles all camp chores, throws like a dream, and moves well in the hand.

Dirk
My fighting knife is a Windlass Primitive Scottish Dirk. Like all my stuff it is modified to look less 'off the shelf' and to also make it more personal. First off I aged the blade and all the parts including the handle. Second I filed notches into the back of the blade near the handle and added a 3 inch back edge. These serve to help catch blades when in combat. Third I replaced the nut with a solid peen and added a three inch false edge to the back of the blade. One thing I love about this dirk is that it has a nice Dunedain-esque star on the pommel which lends great character to the knife. I wear my dirk across the small of my back facing towards the left. The intent behind this is that it can be drawn simultaneously with my hawk. Anyone interested in hawk and knife fighting I recommend reading "The Fighting Tomahawk: An Illustrated Guide to Using the Tomahawk and Long Knife as Weapons" by Dwight C. McLemore.



Bow


My warbow was made by my father who is a lifelong bowyer and former president of the Primitive Archers of Illinois. He and I cut wood every spring and split it by hand and then store it in a shed to dry. My father uses no modern tools in the crafting of his bows. It is made from osage and at my 32 inch draw it pulls right at 124 lbs. The nocks are hand carved pieces of antler. I've shot traditional longbows ever since I could draw one. I shoot weekly even in winter and only shoot at a wand stuck in the ground or sometimes a bail of straw. Archery to me is one of a ranger's top skills and ought be practiced to perfection. As such I practice speed shooting with my warbow and am confident with one arrow every four seconds at full draw.

Holdout knife


This is the hold out knife that I carry in my jerkin. Concept wise I wanted a combination of a standard medieval by-knife something similar to my cold steel scottish spike neck knife. My thoughts ran to stories of colonial frontiersmen whose camps were ambushed and had to bail in nothing but their clothes and without grabbing any gear. The thought here was if I had to ditch camp in nothing but my clothes at least I would have a weapon and a tool.

Garrote wire
A nasty bit of work. This is crafted from steel stock and a commando saw. This is carried in a small pocket by my left armpit. Perfect for orc sentry removal. Much of my persona if you will combines all of Tolkiens descriptions of the rangers with modern spec ops. I believe this fits well there.