1stMate Matt

Can't think of a better backdrop.

I will post pictures of this baby before he re-wraped it. I know some wanted to know what it looked like with wood scales. This one we used walnut.

Ah! I know Lars verry well. He is one of the best guys in the biz. Shame he doesn't do to much sword work these days. My brother guessed it was his at first glance. Hold on to that one Love.

Be carefull with that. Not all sharp swords are made to hold up to steel on steel. Higher carbon blades that are made for cutting tend to snap after long periods of stage use. I would always ask the hardness of a blade before I assumed it is ok for stage use. Anything over 50 rockwell is fishy.

I love the dragon. Who made it?

They rocked at Ojai. Good times!

We took over 500 pictures this weekend. I will pick the ones to be published and then I will post a ton. You west coasters sure do know how to throw a party.

Been talking with Pat quite a bit. We will have a run down in our magazine. Also a chance that I might get to do some of the sword work for the movie.

Cool. Glad you like it. I will get the last few pictures that I took posted. I actually was in Tony Swatton's shop this weekend and I got to hold the sword that was in the movie. We got it pretty close. Other then the wood handle.

Wow. It better be out of this world.

I had an awesome time at Ojai on Sat. The whole Pirates Magazine crew went to Disneyland on Sunday but even one day at Ojai was breath taking. What a perfect place for a festival. Big thanks to our hosts, the Rum Runners. They sure do keep the rum flowing. I got to meet a lot of people that I have only known online including a sword dealer of mine(Brady from Age of Chivalry). Many pictures coming soon.

Looks great. Glad you are happy with it. I was looking for you all day at the event and I am glad we found each other and that you are happy with it. Well met.

Wooo whooo the Pub is back. I have been waiting to finish this post out for awhile now. The sword is on it's way to Mad Jack but I have tons of pictures to update with. stay tuned.

I along with both coast's "Press Gangs" will be there Sat as guests of the Rum Runners. Klause, Sarah and I are flying out for the TLAPD event and then heading up to ojai for sat and maybe sunday.

In the past we have worked verry close with Pat. I will give him a call this weekend to see if we can't get the inside scoop.

I am still so proud of the ladies in arms. Clean sweep in gold for the saber. Wow.

Verrrry sad indeed.

Now I know that I said the knucklebow was next, but I didn't feel like turning the forge on in the mid-day heat. So I polished the blade out and took a few pictures along the way. First is the blade after heat treat. I roughed it with a 120 grit. Then I go to a 220 grit. I forgot to take a picture of that step. This is the 14" contact wheel that I use for the finishing sanding. Here is the blade at 300 grit. and here is our finnal finish. This is hand scrubbed with a bit of 1200 grit and buffed. As you can see, when I polish my edges out I like to do it at a slight angle to make sure I get all of the previous grit out. It also gives the edge a bit more definition from the flat of the blade. I think I am alone in the way I do my edges.

Looks pretty good. I had been thinking of making myself one in gold for awhile now.

Well to be honest this one is long over due. Had alot of different things come up but normaly 2 weeks is plenty of time for a cutlass. The next step I did was to dish the clamshell blank. Next I drew with a sharpie on the dished clamshell where I wanted to chisel. Next I chiseled on the lines. I used 10 gauge steel. Some people stop here. We often stop here aswell. This time I am going to grind some more shape into the scallops. Here you can see the peaks that I ground into the scallops. Then repeat on the smaller shell... Then I just polished it out. Next would be the knucklebow...

Normally it takes about 2 weeks. X-mas orders should be in by dec 1st to make sure it gets done. We sometimes get slammed around Christmas.

A while back mr Mad Jack asked me to make him a clamshell cutlass. He sent me a little picture that for the life of me I can not find. I am sure he will chime in with it. He also asked me if he could get some "in the works" photos. I figured I might as well post them here for everyone to see. I already rough ground the edge so we will have to start there. Here is the blade rough ground. Here is the clamshell as a flat blank cutout. This will end up fulling formed and traditionaly chiseled. This is just a start. I will have more pcitures later.

nice work. looks great.

Hmmm. Should be soon. Seems it's taking forever this go around. Give it a few more days.

Everyone should have gotten thier copy. If not should be there in the next day or so. Any feedback? I love this issue.