‘Careful what you imagine...’

Over the winter months, I had done some combination of consulting, designing and making for a current TV series under production. ( 1 )
This was all related to the possible commission of a ‘Hero Weapon’ for one of the main characters. Obviously, any of us would be very keen to undertake a project like this! The (relative) fame, and potential related sales after the fact, if for no other reasons. Although I have undertaken some object creation for film and television in past years (notably for ‘Outlander’ in 2006), this has been more an outgrowth of my historic based knowledge.
After considerable back and forth about the outline the ‘world’ and details of the character, I found myself constrained by visual elements all ready determined by the costume designer. I did produce a number of weapon designs derived from those outlines, but in the end, none of these proved suitable.
In the course of the discussions, I had also passed along some very vague rough concepts for a different type of weapon entirely. ‘Fortune’ was something inspired (believe it or not) by a song by my friend Heather Dale of the same name. ( 2 )

as chosen from the original roughs	final design details

So here is the thing: Film is fantasy - not reality.

Although the lines of the design to the right was where I had been leaning, I envisioned this becoming more like light weight two handed blade, more like an excessively long Japanese katana. The film people stressed the huge size and physical prowess of the actor for whom the the object would be intended for. Although this is certainly true, I cautioned them with the problem of turning something that looked great on paper - into a real world object.
The final design was for an impressive weapon, 6 inches at its widest, tapering to a point at one end but still some 4 inches at the narrow end of the bladed portion, with a total length at roughly 5 1/2 feet. I did some real (!) rough math to estimate the possible weights. Even out of 1/8 thick mild steel I estimated about 10 lbs, which was confirmed when I made a rough cutout prototype. This would prove completely unmanageable as a working weapon (even as a prop in staged fight sequences). The truth is that it does not matter how strong the user is - mass has inertia, which dictates its own limits in combat.

’Staff Weapon’ as completed

So in the end I switched to using 1/4 inch thick aluminum plate. Even then my initial estimate suggested  the final weapon in the range of 8 lbs. The entire project was all cut and grind. (I can just hear my old friend Lloyd Johnston muttering ‘That ain’t Blacksmithing’ ). From a starting piece 8 inches long by 66 long, I used a hand jigsaw to cut out the overall profile. The most tedious part was grinding on the edge bevel, the total was over about 72 inches. This ended up about 3/4 an inch wide, down from the starting 1/4 down to about 1/16 on the edge, but done on one side only (the side that shows in the ‘guard’ position in the final image above.)

Although I am pleased with the overall result, it is hard to say how much (if even any) screen time the final prop weapon may be seen on screen. One thing about film work - so often deadlines are extremely tight. In this case I was not rushed, with about three weeks from chosen concept to final delivery. Film work does pay well however!


1)  Note that I am quite purposely being as vague as possible identifying the show. I’ve learned from past experience that Producers are often insanely secretive about the release of any details, certainly before a film is publicly released (and sometimes even after). 
See the blog post : ’Just who spilt the beans’ - Sept 26, 2006

2) Find the video on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl6V9eTn-Tc&list=FLHDqWmXWGPmFXbjilICkQiQ&index=6
How a spark goes through and around to end up so far from the initial inspiration is a long (often contorted) tale of its own.