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| This past Thanksgiving time, some of the Staff were lucky enough to be
down near Driftwood, Texas and decided to give a call to Master Daniel
at the Forge to see if we could drop by for a while and see where all
the wonderful creations of Angel Sword originate from. We must have
surprised him with our call and before he could come up with a polite
excuse we said we were on our way. After a bit of a drive out past and
through the middle of nowhere we arrived at the Angel Sword forge. We
were met out front by Master Daniel Watson and he gave us the guided
tour of the facility and walked us through several steps of the
"creation" process. We hope you enjoy these pictures our
CameraGuy took of our morning out at the Forge. |
| After the metal for the blades has been milled, it is then worked on a
belt grinder to give it a more defined shape... and quite a fireworks
display of sparks, too. |
| Next, the blade is heated in a forge to the correct temperature to
work the metal, in this case, to an even orange glow. To better see
this, we have digitally reduced the flame from the picture. When the
blade reaches the correct temperature it is removed to the next
phase. |
| At this point, the metal of the blade can now be shaped by traditional
methods, hammer and anvil. It takes several cycles of forge and
anvil before the desired shape is achieved. Check out the curve on this
knife in the last frame. |
| Now, one last trip to the fires of the forge before an edge quench and
an oil quench to temper this blade.
The process is not over, by far, but this was all we had time for
that day. Our Production Manager was thrilled to see a work in progress
of a dance sword she had put in a custom order for and our own
BladeMaster spent some time discussing an order for a custom axe. The
rest of our crew (who were warned to keep their hands in their pockets
and not to touch anything) pretty much stayed out of trouble and
enjoyed their time talking to Ken who was there that day mounting
a bronze skull to a pirate's cutlass. |
| It was time to leave so we took a last couple of shots just to wrap
things up. The first is the lapidary area where bone, coral, antler and
gem stones are mounted to these blades to turn them from fantastic
cutting instruments into fantastic works of art. The second shot is of
the work floor, with the welders, grinders, drill press and all the
other great toys.... er, uh we mean tools. Yes guys (and gals) this is
the place that all of us who go wandering glassy-eyed through the
tool aisles at Sears hope and aspire to achieve one day. By the way,
look carefully at the floor in the workshop, that's not just good old
Texas red dirt on the floor. Yep, you guessed it. It's the filings from
all the blades that have been worked on there over the years as Daniel
proved by tossing a hand full into the forge! |
Awesome! |
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