After a few years of not taking on any private commissions due to my workload at Wētā Workshop I had decided this year to take on a very few commissions each year. This post shares the story and the design process for my first of this new set of commissions, a fantasy sword named Lumiere.
Shawn Speakman contacted me about whether I would be interested in making the feature sword Lumiere from his new fantasy novel, The King-Killing Queen. This was exactly the sort of sword I was interested in making again, a fantasy sword that is still a practical weapon, so I said yes and the process began.
Usually I start by understanding what sort of sword and features the client wants, but in this case a lot of it was already defined for me by the sword featured in the novel’s cover art. Artist Magali Villeneuve created the book cover and the sword design, and Milivoj Ceran provided this close-up of the sword.
Lumiere is based on medieval longswords. It has a few fantasy quirks such as a hollow ground blade that would make it a powerful slicing weapon against lightly armoured targets, a bronze cross and pommel, and a leather-covered wooden grip with two spirals of bronze wire winding up it. I was able to work out basic dimensions from the drawings, then discussed what would need changing to make it a more workable sword. There were slight changes to the proportions of the cross in particular to be less chunky, and more changes to the blade. As drawn it was too short, broad and thick to be a really functional sword, so in my final drawings I made it proportioned more like a medieval longsword:
Also I had suggested a few other changes: some chisel work on the pommel to fill in the blank space, and adding a sunburst detail to the escutcheons on the cross to reflect where it was made.
We agreed on changes to the blade design for strength. These included having two different edge grinds on the blade between the fullered section and the rest of the blade so that it would flex evenly along its length and not have a weak spot in the fuller. A spring steel blade would end up shiny and stand in contrast with the cover art which shows a darker blade, so we settled on using a simple pattern welded steel that when chemically treated would have dark and bright areas mixed over the surface.
The gold details on the blade, drawn as raised details, were changed to gold plating in etched recesses, which would protect the gold from rubbing. For the tip, which isn’t shown in the art work, I suggested a stylized arrow head to fill in the detail and add interest to the tip of the blade. Shawn liked all these ideas and agreed to them, so that was the design locked in. Medieval swords were usually assembled with the end of the tang peened over to make them solid, but for ease of maintenance Lumiere was designed as a take-down sword. As a final check, I made a full size foamboard cutout to show the size and proportions.
With the price agreed and deposit paid, I started work. I am fortunate to have two friends in Wellington who can do parts of the job for me that I either don’t have the equipment for or the skills. The pattern welded billet was made by Ben’s Knives here in Wellington, NZ. Chris Menges, who happens to work with me at Wētā Workshop, agreed to do some of the turning and other work. I ground the billet to near size for Chris to heat treat then continued it to final grinds:
Stay tuned, soon I will post the completed blade.