I treated myself to something a bit special for my birthday in 2019. As you might have noticed, I lean pretty heavily into a Viking aesthetic, so when I ran across a Facebook ad for a 5 day sword-making course I didn't need much persuading.

I headed down to BushFire Forge in That London for an amazing week of playing with fire and steel and hammers and grinders under the expert tutelage of forgemaster and bladesmith Owen Bush.

5 days later, and somewhat exhausted, I was the proud owner of my very own hand-forged blade. I was planning to go back in 2020 for the axe-making course, but then 2020 happened... Hopefully one day I'll get to add a pair of axes to the collection.

Stay tuned - a suitably epic mounting plaque for the sword is in the works!

See you around!
Jonny