Sunday, March 24, 2013

Forging real swords based on pop culture versions

Regular readers may recall my posts about master swordsmith, Tony Swatton, who armored up my pencil box and who leads Viking raids on IKEA.

Tony has produced hundreds of movie weapons, and now he's working with a video team to produce a web series showing the process he uses in his shop in Burbank, CA. Each week Tony forges a new weapon based on suggestions from viewers. He uses grinders, furnaces, and power hammers, and explains each step of the process. Then "he takes his weapon to the streets to bust up some stuff.."


In the first eposide, Tony builds Jaime Lannister's sword from "Game of Thrones." These videos are helpful for concept artists to watch to see the logistics of the build and the strength needed to use real weapons that follow fantasy designs.
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Video by Andy Signore, Gabe Michael, Mitch Rotter and Matt Irwin
Tony's shop: The Sword and the Stone, Burbank, CA

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for reposting the link.
I am starting filming the next episodes tomorrow.
Tony Swatton

Diana Moses Botkin said...

Awesome. My teenage son sometimes looks over my shoulder as I look at your posts, James. He especially liked this one.

I noted to him that Tony looked like he was enjoying his work and my son said, "Who wouldn't?!"

dragonladych said...

Urf! I just remembered why I quit watching TV some years ago. The fast pacing that seems to be in fashion these days gives me an instant headache.

But that's really interesting, just wish it didn't jump from one thing to the other so fast.