viking sword or historism?

[Bruno]

Judging by the patina, as a reenactor smith, I would say that this sword is recently made, chemically rusted and then blackened with motor oil in the forge.

Just an instinctive, rule of thumb judgement.

That kind of black doesn't come from some museum grade compound like paraloid.

And the rusting is consistent with modern steel rusting, some granularity and a few welld efined craters.

Ancient steel would rust in a less defined manner in my experience, with depressions having soft sloping.


Not to mention the lack of pattern welding.

Also the pommel lobes are quite crude if compared to examples that can be seen on the web, being photographed in well known institutions.