Medieval Weapons - The Passion of Swords

Fantasy movies or stories are extremely popular and also very diverse. There are many different settings, story lines and fantasy swords available and so everyone will like one weapon or the other. However, there are also many unique collections of fantasy swords which are simply creations based on the artist’s imagination and not a real story.

There are different fantasy swords on the market, some based on weapons you have seen pictures of before and some not. One of the most famous series of fantasy swords are those belonging to the Lord of the Rings. Other famous movies or books with swords include Conan the Barbarian, Blade, Kill Bill and King Arthur. Some of the swords are completely based on ideas from the author, whereas others are more historical in nature.

If you are a collector of fantasy swords then you will be on the lookout for the most unique swords that you can find and these are often the ones that are made up by someone. A great example of this would be the fantasy sword collections of Kit Rae. These are very unique and there are a series of swords that create a single collection so you will have plenty to put on display. Since the collector’s value is important and not the functionality of these weapons, the swords are unfortunately not suitable for purposes such as reenactments, demonstrations, competitions, training and practice. This is because they are not battle ready, heavy and will lose their value if damaged in some way by cracking or chipping.

Since fantasy swords may one day become collector’s items and therefore increase in value it is best to look for special and limited editions. These have the best chances of increasing in value. Swords from movies should also include a certificate of authenticity and official licensing rights in order to one day be worth more than you paid for it. One of the biggest problems with finding the right fantasy swords to invest in is that you simply don’t know what will one day have cult status and what movies will just be forgotten.

Most people think that Kit Rae is the real artist that created the Lord of the Rings swords. The truth is quite different. Kit Rae did play a role, but not the one most people think. The real designer behind the creation of each and every Lord of the Rings sword is Peter Lyon. He is the first who received the contract to forged realistic swords to be used during the creation of the movie.

Once all the Lord of the Rings swords where finally designed, approved and forged, they where finally sent to Kit Rae in order to replicate Lyon’s work to create copies to be sold to the general public. Being an amazing LOTR fan, Kit Rae took this opportunity to work on this project in an heartbeat.

Many copies were made until the recreation of the props were identical. The hardest part according to Rae was the finishing part of each swords. The props used during the movie were highly detailed with weathering and distressing to make them look used. The whole goal was to make them an integral part of the world of middle-earth.

Various techniques were used to achieve different looks depending on the sword. The challenge was to recreate the same look but on stainless steel blades instead of carbon steel. The decision to used stainless steel was to prevent the blade from rust. In the end it was a random acid etch process that did the job.

Now days, many collectors like you and me are proud owners of the amazing swords that can be seen in the Lord of the Rings movie.

Those who know me know that I love collecting swords, especially samurai swords or Japanese weapons. Recently I have started to expand my sword collection by collecting movie swords.

Since I am a huge movie fan (I own around 450 movies) i decided to combine both of my passions and further improve my sword collection. Of course I needed to buy only the best swords available; my collection contains only high quality swords.

Learn more about how I started collecting Movie swords.