![]() ![]() I didn't even have the requisite clothing. So, I think they just went through the vetted list and said, “All right, who lives close enough to get here?” I'm only about an hour away.Īnyway, I already had my bags packed because I was going to a conference in Maryland, so I said, “All right, why not.” I was completely unprepared. His plane was grounded, he couldn't make it, and they were supposed to be shooting that day. Can you be down here in an hour and a half?” I guess one of the guys they scheduled for that episode got snowed in. The first time I was on, I remember I was getting ready to go to a conference, and they called me around 10 o'clock in the morning and said, “Hey, we're down to Stanford. After that, they kind of got plain once Christianity hit those areas. As I said, I started with the Viking swords because they had the most elaborate stuff until you get into the 1700s. But sword fittings are much bigger, and the blades are much bigger, so you've got room to do compositions. With knives, the bolsters are pretty small, and the back end is pretty small. One of the nice things about swords is that swords are a much bigger platform to work with. I started with Viking swords just because I like a lot of the pre-Christian, Northern European art that goes into them. Matthew’s unique style, made-to-orderīDF: Would you say you have a your own style when it comes to your work? There is an art to tuning swords, and that's really fun. ![]() It should naturally want to make those moves. So, it's not just what it weighs, but where the weight is and making the handle in a way that you don't have to fight it to make the moves you want. Then you need to figure out how to distribute the mass, which is also challenging. But, if you're going to swing it all, it's got to be light. Even two-handed swords should only weigh five or six pounds. Most people don't realize that a one-handed sword shouldn't weigh more than three pounds. You never hear knife makers talking about how much their knife weighs, and with swords, that is incredibly important. I like swords not only because they're a bigger canvas for art but because they're far more complex than knives. But things get bigger when you make swords, and you have to have a lot of patience because swords take forever. I actually have a 50-inch kiln, and I can punch the temperature on the digital control and set it to hold there, so I don't have to judge the color. But, also, I'm red-green colorblind, so I have trouble judging when something is “ready” by the color. Most people don't, especially people just starting. The hard part with preferring swords is that you have to have a way to heat treat them properly. MB: They really are completely different. Focusing on swordsīDF: Do you prefer forging swords or knives? I was a software developer before I retired, and that was a lot of sitting and pounding the keyboard. And it's nice because you get to use your hands. I like that you can engage both sides of your brain when you're doing it. Bladesmithing is a nice mix of art and science. Honestly, I ended up working more now than when I had a job! It just kept sucking me in. I've been doing it as a hobby since then. ![]() Eventually, I built a shop in my backyard before I retired, which was about six years ago. I took a lot of classes from 2007 onward and was doing it as a hobby again, and then I started selling stuff. So, I had to interpret it as best as I could and go from there. When I was forging something, I just had books to consult, and those had very few pictures. I went there and took an intro knife class and learned all the things that I had been doing wrong. It was the New England School of Metalwork. I thought that had to be a joke, but it turned out it was true. There was internet by then, and a friend told me there was a bladesmithing school on the internet. My daughter was born in 1995, and that was the end of the hobby until around 2007. MB: I started in 1987, and at that point, I was doing it as a hobby. ![]() I had been looking for armoring stuff, but once I got the forge, I decided that forging swords was way more fun than armor.īDF: How long would you say you've been forging, then? So, that's how I got into forging because eventually, he paid me with a forge, then an anvil, and a whole bunch of hammers and tools like that. ![]()
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