I thought I had better post some pictures of the blade I made for the recent Nat geo program.
It may or may not be or have been on display with the staffordshire hoard in the UK?
It is (roughly) based on some blades on display in salisbury and winchester museums , the consulted historians came to about the same conclusions as we did about blade shape , which was nice!
The blade is made to fit the smeasurements of the gold guard with the intertwining dogs in the hoard collection.
I had made a couple of other blades but was dismayed at the way they looked "modern" and too shiney, so at the last minute I started from scratch and re made this one . there is the normal 15n20 et al but I have thrown wrought at it all and strung out the layers so that there is grain in all the pattern , I wanted a blade that invited a closer look and rewarded you for doing just that.
I like this blade and am proud of it, it is the culmination of a flow of ideas, some solely mine , some brought about in discussion with Peter Johnsson and Jake Powning. I was in the rare position to find a client (Nat Geo) who were willing to not only pay for it but film the making of it too!
pretty much a dream ticket and great timing.
my brother managed to get a great photo, it is both a complicated and subtle blade.............

[ Linked Image ]

I think I showed this image before.
[ Linked Image ]

Fantastic work Owen!

That is a blade of great beauty Owen. The shape is spot on and the pattern sublime.Lovely :)

Excellent work Owen.

regards
Dave

Stunning Owen, absolutely stunning work, looking forward to seeing the nat geo programme when it airs.

One of my favorite of all time! Well done sir!

Amazing looking blade, are you going to mount it in reproduced handle furniture based on the gold guard with the intertwining dogs in the hoard collection or will the original pieces be slipped onto the blade for display purposes ( Not permanently assembled to avoid any changes or damage to the originals ? )

So awesome looking. Great work Owen. Look forward to see what the ultimately finished product looks like. How long did it take you to make it from start to finish by yourself?

thanks for all the kind words.
this blade was the culmination of a series of blades.....
so I guess the truth is it took me 6 blades to get close and a 7th to get it rite.
All the other blades turned out fine but were too "brite" and had contrast that looked too modern , so on friday eve with filming on the monday I phoned up Jake Powning and had a chat about presenting work that may end up defining me on tv , that was better than OK but which for some perfectionist reason I was not happy about . I thought the blades I had made looked modern and American (for want of a better word) with definate "damascus " at the edge (for want of a better word) .
these were some of the blades that did not hit my subtle saxon asthetic (I really love these blades now! its funny how ones relationship with work can be so complicated. It is easy to lose perspective in the minutiae of it all)
[ Linked Image ]
of course the answer was to make it again .
So I set about doing just thatI started on friday afternoon and worked through the evening so the blade took 2/12 long days of working in the zone having just made half a dozen of similar blades.
I am glad I was not satisfied with the first few.......

how thick is the spine Owen? Again, that's really a beautiful blade.