The weaponsmiths from Man At Arms Reforged have a pretty simple mission. They select fictional weapons (sometimes with subscribed voters helping), and then bring those weapons to life. As Baltimore Knife And Sword, these smiths, artists, and machinists make their living forging weapons and props for film, stage, and renaissance festivals.
For their latest episode, the weaponsmiths chose to celebrate the release of the The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies by constructing Sauron’s mace. In case anybody missed it, Sauron uses his mace in The Fellowship Of The Ring to wallop waves of human and elven foes like Barry Bonds chipping tee-balls out of the park.
As with most episodes, the team introduces the weapon within its fictional context, describes the raw materials, and documents the process of machining, cutting, chiseling, hammering, and forging the mace.
The finished weapon is finely crafted and effective. While it takes a human-sized combatant both hands to wield it, the Man At Arms team has no trouble using the mace to smash juice jugs, metal pots, cinder blocks, and pumpkins (watch out Billy Corgan). The Dark Lord would be proud.
[via DIGG]