Short answer: For most weddings an engraved folding knife is the right groomsmen gift and a set of swords is not. Swords on this site run three hundred and ten to nine hundred and six dollars each, so eight of them is a five figure decision dressed up as a gesture. Eight engraved folders at our median comes to about one thousand two hundred and fifty six dollars including engraving at twenty nine dollars a knife. The sword is a wonderful single gift for one person. It is a poor gift for a group.
The number that decides everything
Before you look at a single product, work out your per head budget and multiply it by the number of people you are gifting. That multiplication is where most wedding gift plans quietly fall apart, because a knife that feels reasonable on its own product page stops feeling reasonable at eight copies.
The second number is who is actually on the list. Groomsmen, the best man, the father of the bride, the father of the groom, the officiant and sometimes ushers. Six is common. Eight is not unusual. Once you have both numbers you can do the arithmetic in the next two tables and the decision usually makes itself.
| Gift type on this site | Products | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swords, including katanas | 13 | $310 | $462 | $906 |
| Folding pocket knives | 111 | $70 | $128 | $845 |
| Damascus chef and kitchen knives | 44 | $90 | $142 | $694 |
| Engraving, added to any of the above | n/a | $29 flat fee per knife | ||
Swords for groomsmen: what the tradition actually is
The search demand behind this page is dominated by people looking for groomsmen swords, so it is worth separating two different things that get merged.
The first is the saber arch, sometimes called the arch of swords or the arch of sabers. It is a service tradition with origins in the Royal Navy, performed by an honour guard of commissioned officers or noncommissioned officers, usually six or eight bearers, and it is treated as a privilege accorded to members of the service rather than a decoration a civilian party arranges. In the American version the last bearer gives the bride a gentle swat with the flat of the blade and welcomes her to the branch, and that step is dropped when the bride is also serving. If your wedding qualifies for a saber arch, the sabers involved are a uniform item and a service matter, not something you buy from a knife shop for the occasion.
The second is a group of groomsmen who simply like the idea of receiving a sword. That is a perfectly good reason to want one, and it is a bad reason to buy eight. A display sword is a large object that has to live somewhere. It is not carried, it is not used, and in a small apartment it goes into a closet within a month. Multiply the median of four hundred and sixty two dollars by the size of your party and ask whether you would rather give each person something they will actually handle.
What a set of swords costs against a set of folders
The arithmetic below uses our own published medians. Engraving is added at twenty nine dollars per knife, the flat fee published on our engraving page.
| Party size | Swords at $462 each | Folders at $128 each | Folders plus engraving at $157 each | Kitchen knives at $142 each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four | $1,848 | $512 | $628 | $568 |
| Six | $2,772 | $768 | $942 | $852 |
| Eight | $3,696 | $1,024 | $1,256 | $1,136 |
| Ten | $4,620 | $1,280 | $1,570 | $1,420 |
There is a middle path that a lot of couples take and that we think is the right one. Give the whole party an engraved folder, and give the best man or the father of the bride a single sword. One sword at four hundred and sixty two dollars plus seven engraved folders at one hundred and fifty seven comes to one thousand five hundred and sixty one dollars, which is less than half the eight sword figure and gives one person something genuinely remarkable rather than giving eight people the same large object.
The engraving facts, exactly as they stand today
We check this page against our own engraving page before publishing because the details change and because getting them wrong costs somebody a wedding gift. As published today, the terms are these.
| Item | What our engraving page says today |
|---|---|
| Price | $29 flat fee per knife |
| How to order | Tick the engraving box above the Add to Cart button on the product page |
| Text limit | Up to 20 characters |
| Logos and artwork | Tick the same engraving option, order as normal, then email the artwork. No separate logo price is published |
| Fonts | Name the typeface in the engraving instructions with your text |
| Effect on schedule | Adds one to two business days to production, not to delivery |
| Returns | Engraved knives cannot be returned, because the text makes each one unique |
| Placement | Varies with the blade shape and the space available |
Two consequences worth spelling out. First, that no returns rule is absolute and it bites hardest exactly where weddings live: a misspelled surname on eight knives is eight knives you own. Read every name character by character, out loud, against the wedding invitation spelling and not from memory. Second, twenty characters is short. Initials and a date fit. A full name with a nickname and a date usually does not, and asking us to squeeze it produces engraving you cannot read across a room.
We do not offer free engraving and we are not going to start pretending otherwise in a gift guide. Twenty nine dollars a knife is the price.
What to give the best man
The convention is that the best man gets something a step above the rest of the party, and knives make that easy because you can hold the pattern constant and change the material. A group of folders in wood or micarta with a single matching folder in Damascus or pearl reads as deliberate. A group of folders with one sword reads as deliberate too. What does not read well is giving everybody a different knife chosen at random, because then nobody knows whether they got the good one.
If you want the whole party to match visually, order in one go. Natural handle materials are cut from different blocks and will not colour match across separate orders placed weeks apart, and that is true of any maker who uses wood, bone or horn.
Wedding gifts for the couple: the kitchen answer
Gifting the couple is a different problem from gifting the party. Here the useful question is not what looks impressive but what will be in daily use in five years, and the honest answer for most couples is a kitchen knife rather than anything decorative.
Our Damascus chef and kitchen category runs forty four products from ninety dollars to six hundred and ninety four, with a median of one hundred and forty two. One good chef knife at that level replaces a block of six mediocre ones and will outlast the marriage certificate if it is looked after. If you are buying for a couple who cook, add a small paring knife rather than a second large knife, and skip the block. Blocks look generous and mostly hold knives nobody uses.
One caution against our own interest. A carbon Damascus kitchen knife needs drying after every wash and will spot if it is left in a sink. If the couple you are buying for are the sort of people who leave a pan to soak overnight, buy them stainless from somebody else and everyone will be happier. Our guide to carbon and stainless kitchen knives sets out that trade honestly.
The cake knife question
Cutting a wedding cake with a sword is a real thing at military weddings and a photogenic thing everywhere else, and it comes with two practical problems that nobody mentions until the day.
The first is that a long sword blade is a poor cake knife. It flexes, it drags icing, and it needs two hands and a lot of clearance to draw through a tiered cake without knocking the tier. The second is hygiene and finish: a carbon steel blade meeting wet buttercream will stain, and acidic fillings will mark it within minutes. If you are using a blade for the cut, wipe it clean immediately afterwards rather than at the end of the night.
The workable version is to use the sword for the photograph and the first symbolic cut, then hand the cake to somebody with a proper long slicer for the actual serving. If you want the blade to be the keepsake, that is exactly the right way to do it: a ceremonial cut, a clean wipe, and back in its scabbard.
The coin, the superstition and whether to bother
There is a long standing custom that a knife given as a gift should be accompanied by a coin, which the recipient hands back so the blade is technically bought rather than given, on the theory that a gifted blade cuts the friendship. It shows up in accounts from Sheffield, from Ireland and Scotland and from Scandinavia, and knife industry writing traces it back further, to a theory that you asked for the lowest coin of the realm when a ruler handed you a blade.
Being accurate about it: the origins are folklore and not documented. The most that is firmly attested is relatively modern, including knife company marketing cards from the middle of the twentieth century. So the tradition is real as a tradition, and the ancient origin story is unverified. Tape a penny to the box if you like the idea. It costs a cent and some guests genuinely appreciate it.
Timing, shipping and the things that go wrong
Order earlier than feels necessary. Engraving adds one to two business days to production on top of whatever the normal production time is, and a group order of eight is not eight independent items moving in parallel. If you are ordering for a wedding, treat the engraving text as due weeks before the date, not days.
Check where you are sending them. Knife law varies by state and by country, some carriers will not carry blades to some destinations, and gifting to a guest travelling home by air means that knife has to go into checked baggage or be shipped separately. Our guides to pocket knife laws by state and flying with a knife cover both. Please check your local law before ordering.
Finally, think about the recipient rather than the theme. A groomsman who has never carried a knife will use a small slim folder and will never use a large one. Somebody who already carries every day probably has opinions and would rather have the kitchen knife.
Where we are the wrong shop for this
We should be plain about our limits. We publish thirteen swords and only a handful of products across the whole catalogue that are described for weddings or groomsmen at all, so this is not a dedicated wedding shop with matched sets, coordinated boxes and printed cards. Our engraving is twenty nine dollars a knife with a twenty character limit and no returns once cut. Our least expensive folder is seventy dollars, which is above the per head budget a lot of parties work to.
If your budget is thirty dollars a groomsman, buy something else with our blessing. If it is one hundred and fifty and you want each person to receive something with their initials on it that they will still own in twenty years, that is the case we can make. You can see what is available on the sword category, the folding pocket knives category and the Damascus chef and kitchen knives category.
Questions people ask
Are swords a good groomsmen gift?
As a single gift for one person, yes. As eight identical gifts, usually not. Swords on this site run three hundred and ten to nine hundred and six dollars with a median of four hundred and sixty two, so a party of eight is close to three thousand seven hundred dollars for objects that will mostly end up in storage.
How much should a groomsmen gift cost?
Set a per head figure first and multiply. There is no correct number, but the arithmetic in this guide shows the practical bands: folders at our median put eight people at just over one thousand dollars including engraving, kitchen knives put eight at about eleven hundred, and swords put eight near three thousand seven hundred.
How much does engraving cost and how long does it add?
Twenty nine dollars flat per knife, up to twenty characters, ticked on the product page above the Add to Cart button. It adds one to two business days to production. It does not change delivery speed by itself.
Can I have a logo engraved as well as text?
Yes. Tick the same engraving option, place the order as normal and email the artwork afterwards. Our engraving page does not publish a separate price for a logo, so ask before you assume one.
Can an engraved knife be returned?
No. Engraving is permanent and it makes the knife unique to you, so engraved knives cannot be returned. Check every spelling against the invitation before you check out.
What is the arch of swords at a wedding?
A service tradition with origins in the Royal Navy, performed by an honour guard of officers or noncommissioned officers, usually six or eight bearers. It is a privilege of service rather than a decoration a civilian party arranges, and the sabers used are uniform items.
Should I give a knife with a coin?
If you like the custom. The idea is that the recipient hands the coin back so the blade is bought rather than given. It appears in English, Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian accounts, but the ancient origin story is folklore and is not documented, so treat it as a nice gesture rather than a historical fact.
Is a Damascus knife a good wedding gift for a couple?
It is if they will dry it. Carbon Damascus takes a fine edge and will spot if it is left wet. For a couple who leave dishes to soak, buy stainless, even though that means buying it somewhere other than here for most of our kitchen range.
Can we cut the cake with a sword?
You can, for the ceremonial cut. A long blade flexes and drags through icing, and carbon steel will mark where it meets wet frosting, so wipe it immediately and let somebody serve the cake with a proper slicer.
How far in advance should I order engraved wedding gifts?
Weeks, not days. Engraving adds one to two business days to production, group orders are handled as a group, and shipping to multiple addresses adds its own delay. Finalise the engraving text well before the date so a spelling problem is caught while it can still be fixed.
More guides: our Christmas knife gifts guide covers gift choosing in more general terms, the Damascus katana guide explains what you are actually buying if you go the sword route, and hand forged versus factory explains the price gap you will see when you compare quotes. For the practical side, read pocket knife laws by state and browse the sword category.
More from the workshop
1095 or D2: Two Steels We Actually Sell
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How to Tell Real Damascus from a Printed Pattern
Four checks that separate forge-welded steel from a surface-etched imitation.
Damascus vs D2 vs 440C vs VG10: Which Steel
Damascus, D2, 440C and VG10 compared by what each one is actually good at.
