Weapons and Warfare

Swords

Surprisingly (or not) this was one of the easiest facets of the various outfits that I've put together. United Cutlery (UC) actually made decent Strider swords and Elven Hunting knives, as well as some relatively well made scabbards. These I was able to get through any Google search for "Strider sword" or something to that effect. The UC sword, though is made of stainless steel which is a bit too brittle for real combat and has what is called a "rat-tailed tang" which isn't suitable for battle ready swords.

Strider's belt I got through Blades By Brown - they only appear to have the Anduril belt on their website now, but perhaps it can be specially ordered.

Boromir's sword was a bit harder to find, since UC did not make the decision (or had a production line ready) for this for some time. Where I got the sword, I honestly don't remember, but it was called a "Marauder Sword" and was exactly the same as the movie Boromir sword, even down to the dark bluish-black leather wrapping and scabbard. This is also made of stainless steel, but has a full tang.

Faramir's sword was actually the most difficult to get, mainly because there didn't seem to be the buzz and demand as the other ones. Faramir's sword appears to be the love-child of Strider's hand-and-a-half bastard sword and Boromir's single-hand sword. Amazingly, Reg started carrying swords and had a few of these available - and shipped out on a surprisingly timely manner. Stainless steel and full tang here. There may be a variation on this theme for the sword, but this is tied into the Ithilien Ranger sword story below.

The Ithilien Ranger sword is indeed a niche product. I'll be discussing that in a later post. That involves another artisan and a private investigator!!



Bows

Bows, too turned out to be relatively easy to get - and gorgeous ones at that! My search lead to bowstick.com. Justin Steinmetz (the owner) makes some incredible "fantasy" bows. I use that term loosely since all his bows are fully functional. I ordered a limited edition Strider's bow and a "captain of the army" bow. Accurate estimates as to time, great materials and quick delivery. Answers emails and answers the phone!

Justin also has arrows for sale with some wicked looking medieval tips. I actually got some darker "Strider" arrows from Reg (again, these took a long time, but worth the wait) and some lighter "Faramir" arrows (which didn't take as long).

Rumor has it that the British "finger" (a backwards-pointing "V for Victory" sign) originated with the Welsh longbowmen during the Hundred Years War - taunting their French adversaries after a successful volley of arrows into enemy troops. If a bowman was captured, however, the enemy would often amputate these first two fingers for revenge. If you'd like to read more about longbows, check out the wikipedia entry. Fascinating stuff.

Strider's quiver I got off of ebay and used a highly diluted mixture of Fiebing's leather dye to age it a bit more than it was aged already. The Faramir/Ithilien ranger quiver was done by Reg. The linen quiver bag for Aragorn's quiver was made by Andrea and also Fiebing dye aged.