Multiple fullers on viking age swords? -- myArmoury.com

Johan Gemvik

Does anyone have photos of blades from Viking age or earlier with multiple fullers?

Matthew Bunker

Nils Anderssen · Posted: Sat 29 Dec, 2012 3:13 pm Post subject:

I have seen 2-3 of them from the viking age, but there are probably more. The only example I could find at the moment is this one from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. It is found in a male grave in Kjølstad, South Odal k., Hedemark, Norway and is dated the 10th century.

What is worth noticing here is that they end about 1/3 down the blade.

You can find more pictures here: http://www.vikverir.no/ressurser/hist_mus_osl...mp;page=15

Nils Anderssen · Posted: Sat 29 Dec, 2012 3:17 pm Post subject:

Ah, also forgot to mention that there are several examples from earlier. Many good ones is known from the Illerup Ådal findings in Denmark. They date from 200 - 500 AD. Many of these have a unsymmetrical design where the number of fullers on each side is not the same... pretty cool Happy

I do not have any pictures of this right now, but maybe someone else have? I also remember something about this in a thread on this forum... you can maybe search for Illerup?

Matthew Bunker · Posted: Sun 30 Dec, 2012 1:33 am Post subject:

Elling Polden · Posted: Sun 30 Dec, 2012 4:51 am Post subject:

The Illerupp swords are mostly of Roman manefacture, where multiple fullers are a well known feature. As such they might not be very representative of the germanic swordsmith tradition.
But as Nils mentions, there are examples of double fullers on some viking age blades.
Or rather, from his depiction, fullers with a ridge in the middle. The example he posted seems to be a lot more subtle than the roman and late medevial examples, though. Rather than truly separate fullers, it appears more like a single fuller with a ridge in the middle.

As far as I remeber (from Nils' rantings :P) some of these also have asymetrical fullers: One fuller on one side of the blade, two on the other, and so on.
This had me thinking about how these fullers where actually made. If they where made with a grindstone whos diameter did not match the intended fuller profile, might these have been made by making serval proto-fullers, and then grinding down the bevel between them?

Johan Gemvik · Posted: Sun 30 Dec, 2012 6:43 am Post subject:

Nils, that's just like what I was looking for!

This is for a sword project (on a budget) with a smallish modified chinese double fuller blade and Druids mileham fittings.

Kai Lawson · Posted: Tue 12 Mar, 2013 7:53 am Post subject:

Does the asymmetrical fuller setup aid in stiffness at all? I imagine a rough 'V' cross section created by a 1-2 fuller combination may impart some stiffness, when compared to the 'H' shape of two single fullers, but I honestly have no idea.

Bob Haynes · Posted: Sat 16 Mar, 2013 9:07 pm Post subject:

Interesting, very interesting! I too am wondering how they might act in compare to the more common single fullered Migration and Viking Age swords? Would they be more or less lively? Does multiple fuller's mean more structural integrity having another arc structure or more, or what?