Im Speechless........

Now, If you know me, you know that is quiet a difficult task to pull off! Usually you cant get me to shut up, but these swords have floored me!

It started off with one sword a while back (The Stokes Sword) and then i decided to add another sword to my order, and then another.... and now I have THREE ODINBLADES arrive to me today!

The first, is the Stokes sword, This sword was a project I have had in mind since the old days of ArmArt, and John was the man to pull it off. His etchings are second to NONE and we threw around some ideas and the result is nothing short of a miracle!

The second is the two handed saber that I have named THE GREEN DRAGON (you'll learn why later...) On this project, i let John do is magic. For as long as I have known John, I have promised him that one day i would order a sword from him and let the design be 100% up to him. Thats how much i trust him. Well... this is that sword, and it paid off!

The third sword is the S hilt Baskethilt. The Basket is of course made by Eljay Erickson and is a EXACT copy of a historical example. I forwarded photpgraphs of the original which had a 3 fullered broadsword blade , to John and he was able to duplicate it precisely. Some say that John only makes fantasy swords, well, think again! take a hard long look at this sword and it is 100% historical! For those history buffs interested, its replica of an example shown in the Mazansky text....E6a (JS)

All three of these swords are the purest example of what a custom smith can do to PERSONALIZE a custom sword for their customer.
The Stokes sword features my family crest on the pommel and "S" on the guard.
The warder has a "S" shaped cross and the Baskethilt is an "S" hilt...
All very personalized......

I plan to take better pictures later, but it is raining today, so alas, these will have to do for now....

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...0_3947.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...0_3946.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...0_3950.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...0_3951.jpg

The Stokes Sword...
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...0_3949.jpg
More to come.... stick around...
(just wait until you see the BLADES!!!!!)

David, I hate you very much. How am I supposed to enjoy Christmas NOW??? :p :evil: :p :lol:

Now let me return to slobbering all over my monitor..... oh, yes, ehhh plllbbb.

Interesting stuff and just in time for the holidays too.

gorgous! I love the ray skin wrap btw. John always does great work

Oh man I wish I could see the blades right now! The green Warder is awsome looking, the pommel is sick! I love Johns work too bro, grats on some sweet swords.

And you even have time to gift wrap the S hilt and send it to me. PM me for the address.

just a note on the Baskethilt for those interested.
Heres a shot of the original:



John and I had alot of discussion about what to do with the basket... should we leave it bare steel? blue it? brown it? and in the end we decided that a nice brush finish would be best and just let it age naturally. I will maintain it with renn wax, but i think letting it patina on its own will be alot neater....

I have known John Lundemo for several years now. In the past, the swords I have ordered from him have been ones that I have been pretty specific about. During one conversation some time ago, I promised John that one day I would order a sword from him and let him have 100% design control over it. Well, this is that sword. I didnt even specify what TYPE of sword i wanted, I just left it all up to him and trusted he would do his magic.... well... he did.
The result is what I lovingly call the "Green Dragon"
because well... its green.... and has a dragon on it.... didnt take too long to come up with that name :-)

The handle and scabbard were made from one peice of wood so all the grains match perfectly. The blade is etched on both sides with an INCREDIBLE dragon design and the blade actually has hamon! but due to my requests for a tough cutter, John heat treated it differently than a Japanese type blade.

I will let the pictures tell the rest.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...onFull.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...onHilt.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...lBlade.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...tBlade.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...onEtch.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...Dragon.jpg

Of the trio of swords I just recieved from John, this one has the oldest history.
The original idea was spawned nearly 10 years ago, back in the ArmArt days. I had come up with an idea for a sword that I wanted to have made that would be very personalized with my family crest etc....
It wouldnt be until years later that the idea would be realized.
John was very excited to take on this project, and I must appolgize to him because i was VERY picky about alot of the details.
He did alot of work on the artwork for the etchings...
The etchings on the pommel are of the Stokes Family crest, the etchings on the guard feature an "S" logo that John designed as well as the Musashi dragon head logo that has somewhat became my personal logo that i use on my stationary, business cards etc...
The hilt fittings are made of bronze, the handle is wrapped with white ray skin and the blade is single fullered, made of random pattern damascus that is just mind blowing.
This is my FIRST damascus bladed sword, and its really something else to see.
John did a spectacular job on this sword, not only with the way it looks, but it also is very well balanced. The 31" blade is super sharp, which is to be expected from John, and VERY light and fast in the hand.
This sword was designed from the ground up to be an heirloom peice, but its functionality is equaled only by its beauty.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...rdFull.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...deFull.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...sHilt1.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...rdHilt.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...dHilt1.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...dGuard.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...Pommel.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb133/shag...kesTip.jpg

Gosh I love John's work. He doesn't make swords...he makes treasure!

David never pictured you as a cruciform type sword wielder but I must say John does some awesome work!

Images appear to have been removed.

I think we might need to organize an intervention. 3 Odins at a time is surely a cry for help :eek:

Nooooooooo!!! the photobucket links stopped working! please repost!