When I’m not doing publishing, I do other things. One of those things is some obscure HEMA – Viking-style shield-and-weapon fighting. My group (Asfolk, in MN) tries to work with equipment that’s as similar to historical weight and manufacture as is feasible, and then we work on things from there. I got into it after DnD 5e came out, because I was (and now even more so) was skeptical that a piece of material that covered half your body was worth only +1 or +2 to Armor Class, a 5% or 10% change in hit chances when looking at 1d20. So rather than just complain, I signed up for classes. Who knows…maybe it was right.

In any case, I recently purchased a Grimfrost Asgarthr sword as a steel trainer, having reached that point in my training. It is very, very inexpensive for a sword, which can (and does) mean you get what you paid for.

One of those things is that the grip lengths on most mass-produced modern Viking swords are longer by quite a bit than most historical examples. That’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax as to why, and grip styles, and duels at twenty paces (or Holmgang!) over handshake and hammer grip. But…in any case my sword’s grip is too long for my hand.

What follows is a bit of a journal of my shortening the grip on my sword this morning. Because you can’t be writing 24-7.

Executive Summary!

I spent the morning modifying a new-to-me Viking practice sword to fit my hand better

It was a bit of a chore, but worked out OK in the end.

I adjusted the grip length on the Grimfrost Asgarthr sword. It’s $290 including the scabbard, but when I picked it up for the first time, it really felt…not good. Despite having a 4.5″ balance point, the 4″ grip and clunky-feeling pommel (it’s a beast) just weren’t working for me. You get what you pay for, eh?

In any case, I wanted to see if I could shorten the grip. The TL;DR of it is that the crossguard is a bit loose now, but everything else worked ok. Some things to keep in mind if you pursue this course:

• This is a 3.1-lb sword, with substantial presence. It’s heavy.
• They seem to use a filler or epoxy to help keep the pommel on the tang. I had to heat it up with a torch to break that down a bit, and of course after I had to glove up (double-glove, actually).
• The point of the sword is not suitable at all for training. What I did was use a US dime to make a perfectly round tip, and carbide dremel tool tips to file it off, then round the edges a bit and buff them with successive dremel tip passes down to 320 grit. We don’t want to impale anyone, so this is key.
• I probably left too much to peen down in the end, because I really didn’t want to cut off too much of the tang.

But as I noted, in the end, it’s a better sword for what we do than when I got it. It’s still not as nimble or responsive as other swords I’ve handled, but for $300 including the scabbard, I don’t expect that.

As received, with the scabbard. You can see that the pommel is actually canted on the hilt. This did not help. Also, the belt is built for Jotunn. I had to put in more new holes. Scabbard also wants to fall out of the loops. You can actually see the model in the Grimfrost image is holding things in place. Now I know why.  I set it out with my Dremel, grinding bits, and buffing tips to work.

Fixing the Point: Thou Shalt Not Impale Thy Friends

Really made a lot of metal dust here; I wore a surgical mask and safety glasses and was glad for it.

First up was fixing the point, which even though the edge was dull was unacceptably pointy. I made a target with the curvature of a US dime, ground it down with a carbide tip, and then buffed it out. I left the tip larger than the edge, because stabby-stabby. I also buffed the corners of the entire length of the edge, including the tip, on both sides so there’s no chance of a burr or a hard edge making an accidental draw-cut.

Why…won’t…this…pommel…come…off…

Then it was time to remove the pommel. This is where the pommel was putting up a fight. It took multiple passes with the grinding wheel to free the tang…but it took a hit with the blowtorch to free up the epoxy to the point it would move more than this. I had to really beat the hell out of it.

Eventually it came free. To my pleasure, the tang-taper was not bad, and pretty consistent.

I cut off the leather with an XActo knife, then peeled it off. I used a few different tools, including an oscillating saw and a chisel to remove the wood bit. The good news is that the guard beneath the lobed bit is wide enough to accept the full tang.

Test Fit and Beating the Heck out of it with a Hammer

Test-fit at the new length! You can see I put the pins back that hold the lobs together. You can also see that the pommel is no longer canted, so go me. Those pins really wanna fall out though. I cheated to: Some JB Weld fixed it right up. At this point, it was clear the crossguard was going to rattle some. Alas.

I heated up the cut-off tang, which was still too much material, really. Then I had to double-glove here due to the heat and hold the pommel-cap pins in place with two fingers as I used both heavy and light hammers to peen it down.

And … done

Finally, here’s the finished piece. The epoxy has to harden, but it should be ready-enough for gentle use tonight, and full use Saturday.

I wound up removing a bit less than I wanted (it’s always easier to remove less than more…) but it still feels a LOT better in my hand.

It definitely seems like a lot of work to slash off about a half-inch of grip, with a shift in balance from 4.5″ to 4.75″ (towards the sword tip)…but I can only say “it’s much, much better now.”