Recommendation for a custom sword

by Tiffany
(Kansas City)

A hand made custom sword by Fable Blades

QUESTION

I have several sketches of a sword I'd like made. The one blacksmith I've bought from in the past isn't available. I'm looking for a recommendation of another company/person who could make the sword. I've done an internet search, but am nervous about investing several hundred dollars on a company I'm not familiar with. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

ANSWER

Hi Tiffany,

I totally understand your skepticism, and it is well warranted..!

While most custom sword makers are honest, trustworthy folk - many have extremely long waiting lists, and it is not unusual for it to take 2-3 years from deciding on a smith to receiving your final product...

Of course, who you use depends entirely on exactly what kind of sub-genre of sword you have in mind. However, as the most popular choices for custom swords tend to be either Japanese Katana or Fantasy designs based on medieval swords, I'll make a recommendation for each with the aim of trying to get the best bang for your buck possible...

Now for medieval/fantasy style swords - Brendon Olszowy from Fable Blades is easily one of the most skilled and yet affordably priced modern day sword artisans around who takes pride in his work.

While he is based in Australia, he ships worldwide - his swords are made from beautifully tempered, ultra tough 9260 Spring Steel and SBG has seen him go from a hobbyist to a seriously respected sword maker in the last few years right here on our very own forum.

When it comes to Japanese swords- I hate to toot my own horn here, but as you may know I actually deal with two very skilled 'botique' forges for the SBG Professional Grade Katana and the $330 Custom Katana and between these two forges, can certainly come up with something unique for a very reasonable price.

Anyway, hope this information is helpful. If anyone else wishes has had some good or bad experiences with custom sword makers, feel free to extrapolate with your own comments below.