Some interesting press...

Hey all! I noticed since designing the greatest of Master Swords and having Brendan bring my concept to reality, it's gotten some notice!

Here are some articles (the KoH one grabbed some quotes from me to write) that spotlight the most combat ready Master Sword to exist to date:

Knights of Hyrule (http://www.knightsofhyrule.org/2013/10/realistic-master-sword-keeps-knights-line-true/)

Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/do-you-have-a-real-master-sword-this-guy-does-1451138869/all)

RipItUp (http://www.ripitup.co.nz/gaming/youre-probably-not-as-big-a-zelda-fan-as-this-guy/)

It's cool to see the sword get some notice. I cannot express how well balanced and beautiful it is! It slices through bamboo and rolled newspaper, foam and other common cutting targets like a hot knife through butter!

When at rest, it has a treasured place on my wall:

The Hero's Triumph on Cataclysm's Eve, wins three Symbols of Virtue. The Master Sword he will then retrieve, keeping the Knights' line true.

Well, folks, Brendan has finished his masterpiece and will be shipping the sword soon. I have included a number of final photos that he sent along for final commission approval in varying light (the first set is in twilight and the second set being in more brilliant daylight. You can see how the colors are set off by different light schemes which I really like.)

First we have a couple pictures from the twilight set:

And then we have a couple from the daylight set:

 

• We also have some final specs on the sword as follows:
• Material: 9260 Spring Steel, Bronze
• Overall grip length from the pommel ring to the top of the diamond on the guard is 207mm (8.15”)
• Overall blade length is 811mm (31.93”)
• Overall Length is 1052mm (41.41”)
• Weight is 1490g (3.284 lbs.)
• Blade Width: 
• Waist 35mm (1.377")
• Flare 52mm (2.047")
• End of Fuller 31mm (1.22") 
• Point of balance is about 83mm (3.26”) from the blade shoulder where it sits in the guard.
• Center of Percussion: 515mm (20.2”) from that same point.
• Hilt node of percussion: is 52mm (2.05”) back from top of the diamond in the guard. Its a fraction forward of the center of the fore grip.

As part of his showcasing he does with nearly all of his custom blades, the sword now has a dedicated place on their website. You can refer to it here.

Brendan also provided a post for it on the Fable Blades Facebook page. It is located here.

I am super happy with how it turned out! I should be receiving it physically in a couple of weeks, as he is now getting it prepped for shipping and it will be on its way to me soon!  I can't wait!

Sword is almost done!

So this will probably be the second-to-last post on the sword.  The next post will likely be the final and finished product.  Brendan has a few minor things on the sword itself (namely the inscription work on the pommel), but he has been diligently working on the scabbard now.  Here we have some tooling on the scabbard.  This is the raw and un-dyed scabbard and the tooling for the suspension straps on the scabbard belt:

Once fully tooled, he will be dying it blue with a tinge of crimson such that it is the Twilight Princess "purplish-blue".  The accents and raised areas will be gold.

He is nearly done!

The beginnings of a scabbard

Well, now Brendan is on to starting the scabbard... He has the chape and scabbard core done.  Thought I would share with you all!

I thought the triforce on the chape is a nice touch!

In other news,  I have the template for the crown made up and will be ordering the sheet bronze soon.  I am debating between 14 gauge or 16 gauge.  I suspect I will wind up with 14 gauge but may have a harder time shaping it.

I may go with 16 gauge for the crown and belt, and 14 for the pauldrons and amulet.

Decisions, decisions!

Getting ever closer

Every time I turn around, Brendan sends me more photos of his progress.  I love it!  I cannot believe how well he is translating my sketches into reality!

We now have a definitive weight: the sword will weigh in at 3.25lb and have a point of balance at 3.5" from the guard.  Translation: the master sword can definitely be wielded either one or two hands.  Just as a bastard sword should be.

Here is another taste at the progress:

He did a great job on the leather wrapping as well as the dye.  Going to have a beautiful blue/purple tone; perfect for a Twilight Princess setting!

Here you can see the Triforce placed on the ricasso.  He also has the inscription on the blade placed.  This is all coming together so nicely!

A couple more...

Brendan is definitely cooking with fire now! The latest photos that came in last night:

And the "I'm ready for my close-up!"

Brief update on the Master Sword

Hi everybody! Brendan is getting ever-so closer to finishing up the Master Sword and I thought I would share a couple photos of his progress.  It is looking great! 

(Top is the blade of another he is working on for size reference; for those curious it is Longclaw from The Song of Ice and Fire series - The blade for my Master Sword is on bottom)

(Same here)

And finally a sneak preview of the furniture on the blade:

I am super excited!!! It is going to be breathtaking!

Yeah, so about swords...

Hey guys,

So my last post set the stage for the costume foray.  This post is going to talk about the Master Sword.

So, first, a thing about swords; I know something about them.  I've been in love with swords since before I can remember.  There are pictures of me at age 3 running around with a toy, wooden sword sticking out of the back of my shirt.  I watched He-Man religously.  I played The Legend of Zelda since the first installment.  With my first summer job, what did I buy?  My first REAL sword from Museum Replicas, Ltd. (www.museumreplicas.com - Great company, by the way).

Now, moving onto Zelda.  EVERY master sword replica out there suffers from a number of major flaws:

1.) They are resin; or stainless steel blades

2.) They have cast metal (aluminum or pewter or some other soft metal) guards, pommels and grips.

3.) They are off-balance; either very blade heavy, or overall too heavy.  Their blades tend to be false-edged and have no taper; with a hexagonal cross-section blade which, while true to the game; does not make for a practical sword of any kind (see in my previous post about game designers).

I knew right away that none of these would do.  I needed something better.  Something real.  So here's the concept: Take the distinguishing features of the sword: acorn/scent-stopper pommel, winged guard, triforce on the ricasso (or base of the face of the blade), and ensuring there is some blue on the sword somewhere (remember, Fi was blue?).  Now imagine that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings styling of elven craftsmanship were applied.  Imagine if you will, that the same smiths who forged Glamdring or Sting were the ones to forge the Master Sword.  It should look unmistakable as the Master Sword, but with a distinctive elven styling.  I developed a concept sketch and started working with Christian Fletcher (www.christianfletcher.com) about it.

After a lot of back and forth and discussion with him; unfortunately we ran iinto a problem acquiring a blade of the right profile for what I wanted.  Long story short, I wound up moving the commission to Brendan Olszowy over at Fable Blades (www.fableblades.com).  I'm hoping to still have Christian craft the scabbard once the sword is done; his scabbard work is breathtaking.  I already have one of his swords (with scabbard)  and it is truly amazing!  I am looking forward to working with Brendan as well.  He is a super great guy (just like Christian) and he is also pretty excited about the project.  The commission there has begun and should take about 5-6 months to complete.  The guard and pommel, etc. should be done first and is roughly about 6 weeks out.  I'm working with him to hopefully get progress photos and will post them here as they come through.  The blade will have the same profile as his "Truth" sword:

(Courtesy: http://www.fableblades.com/Truth.html)



The exception will be that the fuller will start further away from the guard, making room for the triforce on the ricasso.  The hilt is a design I sketched and will look like this:

Now, you Zelda buffs will notice a few things: the grip is different than the cylindrical grip of the game-sword, the wings are more elegant and thin, there is a grip spacer, it lacks the disc looking thing that bridges the guard from the grip, and the pommel is different.  This was all intentional; this all makes for a more balanced sword (balancing is critical in a bastard sword; which is what the Master Sword really is, not to be confused with a two-handed or longsword).  This is where the "elven" styling comes into play and where some of the artistic license is.

The actual ricasso will have a triforce design like this:

(found at: http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/triforce_ultharwe.jpg)

It will not have the lettering.






  

 Down the blade will be the following inscription:






Yeah, yeah.. it's not QUITE perfect Hylian; it should be actually be reversed as in the games, but it is using the "Twilight Princess" script (not Ancient Hylian from "Skyward Sword").  I'm not a huge fan of the reversed Hylian so it's just english transliterated into the Hylian runes.  It still looks pretty cool, so... meh.

As I said before, if I can get progress photos from Brendan along the way, I'll post them with progress.

See you next time!