Markland Merchants – Viking Haithabu / Hedeby Knife with Leather Sheath In Tan

Designed by Markland Merchants as a historically grounded utility knife for the serious Viking reenactor, this piece features a blade of tempered and sharpened EN45 high-carbon steel with a hardness of 56–58 HRc. The grip is crafted from poplar wood and intentionally left unfinished so it can be oiled, stained, carved, or otherwise customized to suit your preferences. Poplar is particularly well suited to detailed carving, making this knife an excellent project piece for those who want to personalize their equipment. The blade tang is securely set into the hilt and extends roughly halfway through the grip for reliable durability. A sturdy sheath of high-quality vegetable-tanned leather is included, constructed with stitched seams and left undyed so it can be oiled or dyed to achieve a custom finish.

This small Viking Age knife—often described as a simple seax-style utility blade—reflects forms commonly seen among surviving examples preserved in museums across Europe and Scandinavia. Rather than reproducing a single artifact, the design represents a careful synthesis of numerous knives of similar size and profile discovered across Viking Age Scandinavia, continental Europe, and the eastern Rus lands as far as Novgorod. Knives of this type were everyday tools used for tasks such as carving wood, peeling fruit, cutting rope, and preparing meat. As a practical belt knife of the period, examples like this would have been widely available in major Viking trade centers such as Hedeby (Haithabu), Jorvik, and Birka.