Fake period Viking swords
 

Never bring a brittle sword to a sword fight.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...-vikings-sword

Interesting article and there was a big reason the Vikings traded with the middle east and it wasn't all for steel.

Some of the technical stuff in there is so bad it made my head hurt.

First, I'm going to try and make contact with Al Pendray who is the bladesmith that spent many years researching how the famous Persian/Damascus Steel called "Wootz" was made. Damascus, Syria is named because the steel was worked there by the artisans who produced the knives and swords.
Al Pendray finally "broke the code" on how to make the ancient wootz steel.
The results of his work resulted in a very nice article in Scientific American.

This steel often traveled long trade routes before being made into knives and swords. The Vikings sold many into "white slavery" so we know they traveled into the regions where the crucible made wootz steel was available.

History says the main hand weapon of the Vikings was the battle axe and some of this was related to the cost of good swords.

Vikings
 

Funny how most people thing Vikings just hung out in their long boats raiding western Europe whenever they got hungry or broke.

Few realize just how far their trading reached around the known world.

They had a show on Discovery about how the berserkers must have been high up on drugs. Guess they never saw anyone in my family lose their temper.

My Norse relatives told me the only reason the Viking's used battle axes was because chain saws (and gasoline) were not yet invented.;)