Vira bruk is a village and an historic

iron works An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. Iron Works may also refer to: * Iron Works, a neighborhood in Brookfield, Connecticut * Clay City, Kentucky, known as Iron ...

in Österåker in Sweden. Vira bruk was founded around 1630 by Clas Fleming. On the basis on a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

granted by a

royal privilege A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

it manufactured most of the

rapier A rapier () is a type of sword originally used in Spain (known as ' -) and Italy (known as '' spada da lato a striscia''). The name designates a sword with a straight, slender and sharply pointed two-edged long blade wielded in one hand. It wa ...

s and

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

s for the Swedish army into the mid 19th Century. Vira bruk was owned by the

Fleming family Fleming may refer to: Places Australia *Fleming, Northern Territory, a town and a locality Canada * Fleming, Saskatchewan * Fleming Island (Saskatchewan) Egypt * Fleming (neighborhood), a neighborhood in Alexandria Greenland * Fleming Fjord I ...

until 1757, when it was sold to

Reinhold Angerstein Reinhold Rücker Angerstein (October 25, 1718, at Vikmanshyttan – January 5, 1760, in Stockholm) was a Sweden, Swedish metallurgy, metallurgist, civil servant and entrepreneur. Angerstein was a member of an old family of Swedish Iron Masters, ...

, who at that time was an official of the

Swedish Board of Mines The Swedish Board of Mines () was a Swedish government agency existing between 1637 and 1857 with the task of overseeing the mining industry and metal processing in Sweden. The Board was an expression of the ''bergregal'' principle, the royal owne ...

. Angerstein planned for extension of the manufacturing, but died in 1760 before they could be realized. The works then were taken over by his brother-in-law, the archbishop Samuel Troilius. The royal privilege lasted until 1775, but the

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the ...

continued to supply weapons to the Swedish armed forces into the 19th Century and later manufactured civilian products, such as axes and

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

s, into the mid-20th Century. Vira bruk is now a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

References

*Alf Nordström: Vira klingsmedja och liebruk, Stiftelsen Stockholms läns museum and Stiftelsen Vira Bruk, Uddevalla 1985 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vira Bruk Defunct companies of Sweden History of weapons