[Peter Lyon]

I have decided to sell the very first sword I ever made, in the 1980s. I have kept this sword and it has moved house with me for the last 20 years, but I am having a cleanout, so I have decided to offer it up for sale. It is listed here on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...0332838955

This is a very special sword, and will be especially appreciated by collectors of Lord of the Rings memorabilia, and sword collectors in general.

I started it in 1986 and finished it in 1988. Since then I have gone on to make historical replicas and fantasy swords for collectors and historical re-enactors, as well as film. The swords I have made for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the two Narnia films have been seen and appreciated by millions, but this sword is where it all began, and here is the story behind it.

While at university in the early 1980s I got involved in fantasy role-playing games. After a while I wanted to know more of the realities of arms and armour as the treatment in the games was very artificial, and in 1984 joined a medieval re-enactment group. Back then in New Zealand the level of knowledge and historical accuracy was very low, and it was almost impossible to buy equipment, so I started making training equipment, and found I had an aptitude for metalworking and enjoyed it. But my knowledge of what a sword was about was very rudimentary, so for my first sword I decided to make it thick and heavy, the way I though medieval swords were (how far I have come!).

I went to night school metalwork classes to get access to grinding equipment and a lathe, grinding the blade from ½” (12mm) spring steel, and laboriously hand finishing the diamond section with flat files. The pommel was turned from mild steel and the cross cut from mild steel. A friend of mine in Palmerston North polished the blade and blued the cross and pommel. The tang was too short, so he made the sleeve seen in the photos, which snugs up against the cross, and I finished the end and made the locknut that holds it all together. I was doing fencing at the time and based the locknut on the construction of fencing foils. A couple of turns and the pommel and grip can be removed.

This sword has moved from place to place with me for the last 20 years, picking up the current marks on the way, and is always a reminder of where I started. But now I am having a clearing-out of sorts, and I have decided to offer it as a piece of sword-making history.

The vital statistics:

Blade length: 96cm (38”)

Overall length: 136cm (53.5”)

Width of Cross: 40cm (16”)

Weight: About 3.7kg (8.25 pounds)

Balance: 10cm (4”) along blade

Materials: Blade made from spring steel bar, NOT heat treated; cross, pommel and tang sleeve from mild steel; grip sleeve covered with leather strip spiral bound. Scabbard made from plywood, covered with thin black leather.

Condition (also refer to photos): very small patches of rust on blade, cross and pommel, but most of surfaces and bluing still intact; blade edges have small nicks and marks; grip good. Scabbard condition poor, with leather peeling back and tip of scabbard broken in several places.

I will be selling the sword with a letter of authenticity, and I am also willing to fulfil any reasonable request from the buyer for photos and other memorabilia to go with it, to enhance its collectability. The opening bid in based on its collectability, not its value as an historical replica, and this truly is a UNIQUE piece, as there will never be another first sword from me!

Further questions about this sword are welcome.

Delivery costs are listed on ebay, but are very approximate until I can get some costs from courier companies for delivery from New Zealand to the new owner. Check out the ebay listing for photos of it.

[Michael Pearce]

Wow Peter- you have come a long way! I am sure that this sword is going to make some collector very, very happy!

[Pietari Jaakkola]

Whoa. That truly is something. Your work has amazed me through these past years, and to see your first sword truly inspires. I hope I had the money to get that piece
But I just have to wonder, does the hilt construction really hold? I mean, would it come apart if one would swing that mighty sword? Just asking. I'm going into the swordmaking businnes myself, and I want to know everything I can.

[Peter Lyon]

I wouldn't hit anything with the sword myself - the pommel would probably stay on, but the tang end might not like it, and the blade isn't heat treated so the edge definitely would not like it.

Don't look at this as a properly functional sword, rather as a piece of blade art and sword-making history with brag value attached. It mainly shows how little I understood what a sword IS back in the 1980s. Imagine no internet, and research materials very hard to find in New Zealand, and a chunk of my understanding of swords coming from movies - it seems things have come full circle!

[Peter Lyon]

Last chances - only two days to go. No bids yet but plenty of watchers, maybe a last minute flurry of bidding? Or I'm just an optimist. If the sword doesn't sell it will go back into its corner for me to look at for another few years.