I noticed that Matthew Amt posted the following link on SFI, and thought that it might be of interest here:

http://www.bronze-age-craft.com/swordfest.htm

This looks like an interesting event, with some qualifiers:

(a) I don't know anything about these people (any comments out there??)
(b) Southeastern Cornwall is a bit out of the way for those of us on this side of the pond;
(c) I wonder what kind of junky bronze "sword" I would be able to make for my klutzy self over the course of a 2 day seminar.

Might be fun, though. I am toying around with the idea of attending, and inviting my archaeologist son-in-law (who lives in York). Probably a more practical way to get a bronze sword is to just buy one!!

Bronze age weapons manufacturing has always intrigued me. This sounds like a worthwhile experience and I'd attend if I could.

Hm very interresting Steve

Maybe I'll go

If you do look around some more on the site you'l find more workshops on different dates spread around the southern part of England..

So, did anyone of our forumites attend this event? If so, what feedback?

Besides it whas fully booked ones I started to think about it seriously.
But on the list on their there website you can see that Jeroen Z(uiderwijk) did go...
And he is obviously an myArmoury forumite...

Yup, I did go, and it was a fantastic experience! I've written a review and photos on this site:
http://1500bc.com/bronze_sword_festival_2005/index.html

Next year there'll be another sword festival. If you want to go, keep an eye on it as it will be booked full fast. Most people that went last year already agreed on going again, so I'll expect there'll be few extra spaces left.

Thanks, Jeroen. I had actually stumbled into the 1500bc.com... site late yesterday. From the photos, it seems that it was a wonderful, hands-on event, and held at a beautiful location.

I only noticed two pictures that actually showed much of the swords - one showing the cooling of the antenna hilt, and the other showing (I suppose) some work on a blade tip. Not much detail shown. Do you have any close up photos? I am sure they would be of great interest to those on the forum, here. In particular, did you make a sword? And, if so, what did you (try to?) make? Are you satisfied with the results? After only a few days at the festival, I imagine that you would not have a truly finished piece, and would have more work to do.

Also, I noticed the mention of the Egtved Girl presentation, and followed that link to Anni Brøgger's site. I found just enough information there to inspire some curiosity, but not enough to give the story away. Would you care to tell us something about that?

So for those interested, the site for the next Bronze Sword Festival in 2006 is online:
http://www.bronze-age-craft.com/swordfest2006.htm

However if you do plan on going, I recommend booking fast. There's now only 3 places left, and it's only been up for a few days!