the Sword of Cawood

Forged without the aid of any modern power tools by David DelaGardelle, the Sword of Cawood is a reproduction of an existing historical sword which was found in the late 19th Century at the River Ouse near Cawood Castle. The Castle was an ancient Lord's stronghold in North Yorkshire.

Throughout history much has been unknown about the original sword and its owner. It is extremely unique in the sense that it is a sword on the cusp of two eras. On the one hand it follows the traditional Viking age sword style with its lobed shaped pommel and short stout grip. But on the other hand it has a distinctly medieval crossbar with its wide curved shape. The original sword also carries inscriptions that run down the blades fuller and is made up of a number of capital letters which do not form any known words. On one side they are in Roman script and on the other they are in Lombardic script. It is believed that these letters stood for words which in turn represented a phrase or saying that possibly held great spiritual power of sorts to the swords owner. Many historians speculate that each letter in combination may refer to a verse out of the book of Psalms or some other verse out of the Old Testament of Scripture.
Because so much is still unknown about the original sword it holds a great mythic and legendary quality among the people of its homeland in Yorkshire and far beyond to this day.

The Original sword:

This reproduction of the Cawood sword crafted by us at the Mad Dwarf Workshop was a project undertaken with the serious aim of producing it as authentically and traditionally as possible. While we by no means were able to use the exact historical tools the ancient smiths would have used on the original, we still aimed to craft it as authentically as possible, avoiding modern tools at any cost.
The exact measurements and specifications that we used to make sure this sword was as accurate as possible were kindly provided by New Zealand swordsmith Peter Lyon, who has handled the original sword and documented its specs.

To learn more about the original sword take a look at the following articles:
BBC - Archaeology, Rescued Viking Relic
The Press - Return of the Viking sword

Stats:
OAL: 37"
Blade Length: 32"
Point of Balance: 7 1/2" from guard
Wood type: figured antique & reclaimed walnut.
Guard and Pommel: 200+ year old wrought iron from an anchor chain out of England.
Steel type: 200+ year old wagon spring steel, 150+ year old steel from an antique English saw blade, and high carbon 1085.
(all steels were tested by hardening and tempering to see if they met standards for a sword blade prior to use)

This item has been:

Email us at MadDwarfWorkshop@gmail.com to inquire about similar commision work.