Construction of Weta Lord of the Rings Swords

[thd9791]

Hi folks,

I had a few ideas and questions I've been meaning to send to the community. I have already (very clumsily) successfully made Frodo's Barrow Blade. I say successfully lightly, at the end all i cared about was that the tang was peened properly and it held together. My hollow grinds were not very sharp, I made the handle hardware out of chunks of steel and its SO much harder to shape..

anyway, got me thinking - is Narsil threaded together? There's a hole right through the pommel and it seems so wide that the tang can't reach the end. Here's a Kit Rae auction, im assuming the hero was made the same way

that being said, I think this is cool too, it shows some of the handle hardware and assembly of some of the swords used in the films. I pulled it from behind the scenes videos

notice the peen bump on stings pommel

 

[N2darkness]

Not all of the Hero weapons have peened ends. Many just have the pommels either threaded on or epoxied.

All of the stunt props like the one you linked to above have aluminum blades and the crossguard,handle and pommel are directly cast onto the blade (usually some sort of durable urethane) and then painted.

Here is a video of Peter Lyon (master swordsmith at Weta) making the MSSC Sting, a fully functional version for high end collectors and it shows him gluing the parts of the handle together.

 

[Kit Rae]

anyway, got me thinking - is Narsil threaded together? There's a hole right through the pommel and it seems so wide that the tang can't reach the end. Here's a Kit Rae auction, im assuming the hero was made the same way
View attachment 1877820View attachment 1877821

That was someone else, not me. I have never auctioned anything.

 

[thd9791]

Ah thank you! that was from a juliens auction I hadn't seen before, looks like pieces taken from a mold of the real prop, used for commercial use. Auctions are known for getting this wrong lol

Anyway, thank you also folks for discussing the other styles of fitting. I knew some stuff was glued on, Peter himself told me a lot of the hobbit swords had cast handles, metal or resin im not sure. Narsil being threaded makes so much more sense.

 

[Kit Rae]

Ah thank you! that was from a juliens auction I hadn't seen before, looks like pieces taken from a mold of the real prop, used for commercial use. Auctions are known for getting this wrong lol

Anyway, thank you also folks for discussing the other styles of fitting. I knew some stuff was glued on, Peter himself told me a lot of the hobbit swords had cast handles, metal or resin im not sure. Narsil being threaded makes so much more sense.

It's a Urethane stunt prop of the Shards of Narsil. Weta sent me that, and a set of molds, when the films were being made for United Cutlery to use when making our Narsil, Shards, and Anduril replicas. It was cast from the hero prop.

I sold it to a collector and then another collector bought and auctioned it.