Hand-forged bronze · Ocala, Florida

Bronze Raven

Weapons of the Bronze Age, made again by one hand.

View the collection Commission a piece

“Of bronze were their arms, of bronze their houses, and with bronze they worked.” Hesiod, Works and Days

The Collection

Three pieces, one bench.

Each is cast, ground, fitted and finished by hand. Each is the only one.

Α  /  Γ

The finished sword in full: leaf-shaped bronze blade with parallel fullers, dark hardwood grip and flared pommel, laid across a weathered timber bench
Top-down view of the sword's dark hardwood grip, three brass pins down its length, a cast bronze quillon curling out at the guard and a wide flared pommel
The guard where blade meets handle: polished bronze fullers running out from under the dark wood, cast bronze quillons above and below
Mid-blade, filling the frame: parallel fullers cut the length of the polished bronze, catching the light in long bands
The point of the blade, where the fullers converge and close into a rounded leaf-shaped tip

ΑThe whole piece. Roughly two feet of bronze and hardwood, built the way the originals were built.

The Fullered Sword — four grooves, cast quillons

Sean’s first full piece. A fullered leaf blade with cast bronze quillons and a hardwood grip pinned through with brass. Cast, ground, fitted and finished by one person at one bench.

Blade
Cast bronze, four fullers cut by hand, polished
Guard
Cast bronze quillons, fitted to the tang
Grip
Hardwood scales, three brass pins, flared pommel
Length
About two feet overall
Inquire about this piece

Made to commission. Pieces sell by conversation, not by cart.

The finished bronze sword laid on a timber bench beside a river stone and a length of mossy cut wood
Finished and photographed in the shop. Ocala, Florida.
“There was no black iron.” Hesiod, on the Age of Bronze
A one-pound bar of .999 fine copper stamped with the element symbol Cu, standing on a cutting mat at the bench

Why bronze

Steel is the obvious choice. That is most of why I don’t use it.

Bronze came first, and it behaves nothing like steel in the hand. I work a tin bronze, roughly nine parts copper to one part tin: cast, then worked cold along the edge. Hammering the edge compresses the metal and takes it considerably harder than the casting alone ever would.

And it ages. Steel rusts and you spend the rest of your life fighting it. Bronze settles into a green-brown patina over years, takes on the hands that carried it, and never looks the same on two pieces.

The bench from above: wire brush, files, a carved wooden pattern and a finished bronze knife with a dark grip laid across a cutting mat

The making

Nothing here is machined out in one pass.

A pattern is carved in wood first, so the shape can be held and judged before any metal is poured. The casting comes back rough, and everything after that is hand work: files, stones, wire brush, abrasives worked finer and finer until the surface stops being a casting and starts being a blade.

Handles are fitted to the tang and pinned through with brass rather than glued. It is slow, and it is why no two come out identical.

  1. Inquiry

    You tell me what you’re after and your budget.

  2. Design

    We settle the blade profile, the alloy, the handle stock.

  3. Forge

    The piece is made. Typically three weeks.

  4. Delivery

    Shipped insured, tracked, and signed for.

Commission

Start the conversation.

Tell me what you have in mind. I answer every inquiry personally.

A range is enough. It tells me what is possible.

Not ready to commission? New pieces are announced here first.