In the Viking Sagas, Ragnarok was the day of reckoning – in the time of the axe age, the sword age – time without mercy..

And while we aren’t quite there yet, this old legend of a much harsher time is reborn – Sword # 6 in Jason Woodard’s Doomsday Series: the Ragnarok

As with all of the swords in the series – it started with Jason’s 1:1 scale blueprint

Then Chris got to work taking the design from paper to 1095 carbon steel, cutting out the blank

It is then ground to shape – and 11 holes are drilled into it, into which fixing pins shall later be placed.

The blade is then heated to approximately 1500 degrees, until it becomes non magnetic and then quenched in brine (salt water). The 2nd step is Heat Tempering, which consists of heating the steel to 500 degrees for 2 hours, and letting it air cool. This makes for a Rockwell Hardness of approximately 57 HRC.

The pins are inserted into the hand shaped Walnut wood handle and then epoxied into place, giving the sword the durability that Scorpion Swords are famous for.

Hand made to last with pride in the USA – just $289.99

For the last 13 years or so, Archery expert Chris Palmer has been making short bladed swords inspired by history, fantasy and tactical applications – becoming so busy that he had to transition away from bow making to produce blade full time. And so it was very disconcerting when several other sword makers and hobbyists more or less crucified him for a mistake made when a customers heat treatment on one of their ‘longer than usual’ blades that they had been experimenting with as part of the Doomsday line..

I won’t go into all the sordid details – if you have a morbid curiosity you can see the thread yourself here, but long story short is that Scorpion Swords found that their longer bladed swords could not quite meet current customer expectations – so they have decided to re-focus on what they do best.. Short bladed historical and tactical sword designs – and while all of the longer bladed designs were discontinued, new designs are being made to replace them – and at the same time, two NEW designs have just become available.

NEW DESIGN #1: The Tactical Ginunting

This is the hand to hand weapon of choice for the Filipino Marine Corps – and just one look at it reveals why this highly versatile blade would be so popular.

NEW DESIGN # 2: Greek Xiphos

The second is a sword from Classical Antiquity of which variations were found amongst almost all their neighbors, and that is the Xiphos – a leaf blade shortsword made for the 21st century by Scorpion Swords, and complimented with neat deer leather wrapped handle.

Looking forward to sharing with you the design replacements for the swords discontinued from the Doomsday line. But in the meantime, let’ hope that when people post on forums and social media they do not forgot basic courtesy and respect..

When the you know what hits the fan – you will likely find that a hefty, utilitarian and rather brutal cutlass will serve you well – and just one look at the latest edition to the Doomsday series designed by esteemed sword tester and designer Jason Woodard will tell you that if the fifth seal is broken, you could do a lot worse than to have one of these beasties strapped to your side..

Behind the Scenes: How it is Made

Hand made from start to finish at Chris Palmers Workshop in Springfield, Missouri – the Doomsday Cutlass was sketched and designed by Jason Woodard using a 1:1 scale blueprint hand drawn on butchers paper.

Chris takes the design into the workshop, creating a template and cutting a sheet of 1095 carbon steel to shape.

Note the characteristic ‘knuckle duster’ hand guard – this bad boy sure does pack a mean punch along almost every inch of its surface!

From here, the sword blank is hand shaped and hardened by heating the steel to 1500 degrees until it becomes non-magnetic and then quenching it in brine. Each blade is then hand tempered, heating the steel to 500 degrees for 2 hours and letting it air cool – resulting in an even HRC of approx 57 for the entirety of the blade. Below you can see how the heat treatments have changed the base color of the steel.

Finally, before the blade is polished, the blade blued and the sword itself finished up, the walnut wood sandwich tang handle is affixed in place with a combination of several metal pins and a generous coat of epoxy – essentially making these swords of solid one piece construction with no weak points or ‘moving parts’.

And here, the end result!

Exclusively available at Sword Buyers Guide for just $269.99!

The fourth sword in the Doomsday line has just been released – a fully functional replica of the sword used by ‘Blade’ (Wesley Snipes) in his Daywalker franchise, with an amended design by Jason Woodard.

Here are a few pictures that Jason took of the sword with a suitable ‘Doomsday’ background..

Like all Scorpion Swords, the blade is cut to shape from a sheet of 1095 carbon steel.

It is then ground to shape, heat treated and holes cut out for the multitude of minor pins that give it such a good overall durability rating.

The end result?

One extremely durable, hand made in the US version of the Daywalker. Check out Jasons’ testing results below:

Price is only $279.99 plus shipping, click the button below for all the details

The third sword in the series, this is no ordinary run of the mill Machete..

The vast majority of modern made Machete are simply stamped out from a flat sheet of 1045 or 1050 carbon steel, the cheapest steel around. But these machete hearken back to a time when the Machete was a quality tool, not an afterthought.

Like all the blades made at Scorpion Swords, it is cut to shape from a sheet of 1095 carbon steel, what most experts consider to be the IDEAL steel for a tough, hard wearing machete.

From the basic ‘blank’ the basic blade geometry is refined, giving it a wide angled, tip heavy head and a full tang handle with 7 holding pins drilled to size, and the serrated back edge carved into the steel.

The blade is then heat treated and colored black and the handle permanently affixed in place with large and small pins plus a generous amount of gorilla glue to effectively make it an almost indestructible one piece construction.

Unlike most other Machete out there, this one is balanced close to the hilt to allow fast recovery yet has enough mass, weight and hardness to inflict tremendous damage every time it makes contact.

As is almost always the case, you get what you pay for. If you want a cheap and flimsy, unbalanced weed chopper – then you can pick up something mass produced for 1/10th of the cost of this hand made piece. But if you want something with a high initiation factor that has been made with quality and durability in mind from its conception to execution, this is the blade you have been waiting for.