Toledo’s Last Swordmakers

+1 to that, the Wallace Collection is incredible - I think it's one of those things in London that not nearly enough people know about.

It's also got an interesting history: "Bequeathed to the nation by the widow of the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1897 on the condition that no object should ever leave the collection, even for loan exhibitions." - from my write-up on https://www.niche-museums.com/36

That's awesome. I used to make knives with my dad, as a kid. He was a dentist with his own lab, so he taught me how to use all the lab tools, and we used lost-wax to cast various ornaments to be attached for decoration.

I admit I used to get pretty annoyed after spending hours on the various steps. And I don't really enjoy sharpening either.

Years after he passed away, I found myself on a weekend campout, relating to some scouts the amount of work my dad used to put into making a quality knife. I told them I could baton with this knife he had made for me, no problem. So I gathered the wood, and with one whack knocked the blade clean off!

Upon examination, he had used epoxy to fit a blade with no tang! Later after I returned home, I compared this to his own knives, and they all had tangs.

I am still not sure why or how mine ended up that way--guessing he thought he could finish it up fast and a kid would not exactly expect to baton with this thing...

I haven't forged anything yet, looking forward to an opportunity to spend some quality time playing early next year.

I've made a couple knives this year, though. Milling, and then grinding on absolutely the wrong kind of grinder for the job. So that was exhausting, but fun.

> a nice change from programming

I absolutely agree. I took up metalwork because I wanted to make something visible, that you could touch. Weaponry isn't really my thing, but I'll probably make more knives, I enjoy the esthetic constraints, history of the art and materials.

I bought a kitchen knife there maybe 8 years ago. Lovely knife, surprisingly cheap. Still excellent; I wish I had bought more. It was so much cheaper than our other (german made) kitchen knives and just as good if not better.

Mr Zamorano was also super nice despite our limited spanish. Hint - get it wrapped well for travel. He asked if were traveling on rail/air and made sure the knife was nicely sealed. Sure enough, the RENFE folks found the knife and inspected it carefully before we could board.

Some of them could use better names, though. "Medieval Sword", "Medieval Sword 2", "Medieval Sword 3" is kind of hilarious but c'mon, you could put a little marketing polish on that.

A couple also seem to be missing pictures.

As someone who grew up in Toledo, I get unnaturally excited whenever someone else is from there. Most people I encounter from Ohio (which in big coastal cities is also not that common) are from one of the big C's: Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati.

Hah, TIL! Always wondered how that newspaper got that name.

I lived in Toledo (Ohio) for four years and never got that connection. Neat factoid.

Modern military swords are interesting; I find it pretty amazing that the Polish made a new functional (non-ceremonial) sword design as late as 1934 and it was (successfully!!) used in WW2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szabla_wz._34

While the polish were famously the last ones here, even the great powers had new functional designs made pretty late, e.g. the British and US in 1912/13

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_1908_cavalry_sword

When I hear master swordsmith, I think of something like this: https://www.owenbush.co.uk/product-category/swords/

(bonus if you're in the UK they run a sword smithing week long course)

As Baxuz points out, the swords on sale are not overly great quality. unless you like the specific look of them, you are better off getting a version made for HEMA re-enactment.

>I'm going to be blunt here. I see what you did there.

the swords in those 3 links look just like the Asian ones you can see in Toledo. Hard to tell from the picture.

Don't worry. Once swords would once again become useful on the battlefield and in dark alleys, this skill will resurface and thrive again.

Chances for it are not small enough.

Keep in mind that everything in Spain is much less expensive compared to the US. Especially in a place like Toledo, which has 20% unemployment. They are a family business, with just one guy working in the "factory", so probably minimal employee overhead. Material and tooling costs for making a sword are pretty cheap anyway, even in the US.

Toledo used to be famous for its sword makers, but now all the other shops just import cheap knock-offs from China. So that's why he is called the last master sword-maker.

Unfortunately, the pay in Spain is generally pretty low. If I'm not mistaken, the minimum wage is about 7.6 euros per hour. It's actually ~6.50 euros an hour, which is 1050/month, but they get paid 14 times per year (there's two "bonus" pay cheques per year). So if you are full time year around employee, minimum is 7.6 while a more casual worker could be 6.50. Getting 15-30 euro per hour is more than double minimum wage at the low end, and nearly four times the minimum at the high end, so it seems somewhat plausible. A senior software engineer would only be making about that much here (40-50k euros).

That does seem like low pay for a master of a craft. Maybe the claimed 10-20 hour process isn't really exclusive to one sword? If similar pieces are made in batches, maybe it takes 10-20 hours to go through the steps to take a batch of several swords from raw material to completion?

As an aside, my sister studied abroad in Spain and brought me back a sword from Toledo, which to a teenage boy was basically the most amazing gift possible. Good reminder to thank her again and/or send her something fun!

Handmade but production line work still, they can probably churn out quite a lot of those in a short amount of time, especially if they can work off stock metal and use hydraulic hammers and the like.