[Carl Croushore]

Ok, who would you go to if you found an historical record of a sword that you loved on sight, and wanted to have a quality reproduction made for your collection?

I recently picked up my own copy of Ewart Oakeshott's Records of the Medieval sword, and on page 121 is a beautiful (in my humble opinion) Type XIV single-hand sword.

Your input is welcome, all!

[Lee Watts]

there are quite a few custom blacksmiths on your side of the pond ,but most have waiting lists of years and years.
im sure someone who lives over there will tell you soon.

[David Wilson]

A full-on custom, you mean? European-style?

Either Vince Evans or Peter Johnnson.
Personally, I'd lean towards Vince, but just because I'm more familiar with his work (which truly is awesome).

[Bill Grandy]

Well, for my first custom piece I went to Arms and Armor. I've been very impressed with all of their production work so far, and have seen a custom rapier of theirs up close, so I knew I'd be safe in their hands.

I ordered at the very end of November, and the rapier should be here in the next couple of weeks. I'm so excited!

Though I'd do some pretty despicable things to get a custom sword made by Vince Evans.

[Joel Whitmore]

Another route you could go is this: see if ALbion would sell you a blank blade matching the one you like. Contact my friend Patrick Hastings and have him make you some fittings to match! Perhaps even Albion soulc do the custom fittings too, but you' have to talk to them. Certainly nothing "wrong" with the custom smiths mentioned above. Vince, Peter, Kevin Cashen. There are some out there. Certainly everyone forgets that Arms&Armor will take on custom commissions now and again. Just remember that Vince, Peter and Kevin are "one-man shops" and thus have waiting lists of a few years by now. If you are willing to wait, it is well worth it. Cool thing is that even 5 years ago you only had one choice...custom or nothing.


Joel

[Andrew Winston]

Unfortunately, I recently found out that Vince Evans is not taking custom orders.

I had John Lundemo of OdinBlades make me an historically correct Southeast Asian dha, and I was very pleased with his work. He's done a lot of fantasy and Lord of the Rings inspired stuff, but I bet he'd do historic European swords quite nicely.

[Joe Fults]

Others have mentioned good options in the thread already but sometimes the issue is not who you want to do the work. Sometimes its how long will it take, how much will it cost, and will they take the commission. The big names as mentioned often have very long lines at their door or are not taking new work.

A&A really is an often overlooked option that does have a more rapid turn time than many other custom makers.

If there is an Atrim or Albion blade that will work you might try Christian Fletcher to see if he would do custom work. I'm sure he could but he may not want to.

Lundemo seems to be doing some nice stuff and may not be as backed up as the big guns yet.

Maybe Patrick Barta or Pavel Moc out of CZK.

Craig Sitch at Manning Imperial (Aus) might be an option too.

[Russ Ellis]

I heartily second the recommendation of Arms and Armor from personal experiece I can say that they do outstanding custom work. Also in my opinion two badly underrated smiths are Jake Powning in Canada and Rob Miller in Scotland.

[Erik D. Schmid]

A&A without a doubt.

[Carl Croushore]

I truly appreciate all the suggestions given here. I have yet to contact A&A or Albion (this will be rectified in the next few days ), but I have sent inquiries to Pavel Moc, Vlad Cervenka and Patrick Barta in Czechoslovakia. I really like what I see on Mr. Barta's webpage, as well as some of the work on Mr. Cervenka's site.

Again, I appreciate all these ideas and recommendations, and I hope to hear more!

-- Carl Croushore