weapons making

Fantasy weapons maker Matt Stagmer interview

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Matt Stagmer is a prolific weapons maker. He’s part of the Man At Arms Reforged youtube show and he spoke to me at Magfest about his work.

1:14 – Matt was in charge of making the Optimus Prime sword handle. He loves the old school cartoon. He’s made up to 40 or 50,000 weapons over his career.

2:26 – He never really feels a weapon is finished but he has deadlines to meet so they’re done on deadline.

3:20 – Matt’s a big video gamer and games sometimes inspire him. But much of his work is history inspired. He uses lots of books and museums for history. He used to be part of some fighting societies but not anymore.

4:29 – He listens to all kinds of music and comedy while he’s working on weapons. Music inspires and helps kill the sounds of weapons making.

5:23 – He loves to hammer the tang over the pommel. He loves that last step and tries to do that on every weapon. His older brother got him into weapons making. He thought he might be an engineer or architect. Creating three-dimensional art is addictive. He’s used auto CAD and uses CNC tools to make the weapons.

7:22 – The first time he sold a folded steel Damascus sword he knew he wanted to stay with weapons making. You won’t get rich making weapons so you have to love it.

8:09 – Sword makers used to be social outcasts but Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings changed that. Weapons makers are cool now. They’re just grungy guys in a shop thought but he loves making his fans happy. Things changed around 2000 when the fantasy stuff started coming out.

10:14 – He’s a huge Zelda fan. He plays Pub G and Ark. He’s got a lightsaber handle that he can put a blade into. They’ve worked with Robert Rodriguez on a project. He loved Never Ending story and Flight of the Navigator when he was a kid. He liked a program about a football team that became knights of the Round Table (King Arthur and the Knights of Justice.)

12:04 – He wants to make some of the Star Wars hand-to-hand weapons. He wants to make Chaos Eater. He also wants to make the rapier from Princess Bride.

13:08 – He streams on twitch and his gamer tag is stalkertron. The Man At Arms: Reforged vidoes are online hosted by AWE Me.

 

Links

https://playbattlegrounds.com/main.pu

http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292411/?ref_=nv_sr_2

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNKcMBYP_-18FLgk4BYGtfw

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Matt Stagmer

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: weapons, blacksmith, weaponsmaker, fantasy

Fantasy weapons maker Matt Stagmer interview – Super Magfest 2018 – youtube

 

Matt Stagmer is a prolific weapons maker. He’s part of the Man At Arms reforged youtube show and he spoke to me at Magfest about his work.

1:14 – Matt was in charge of making the Optimus Prime sword handle. He loves the old school cartoon. He’s made up to 40 or 50,000 weapons over his career.

2:26 – He never really feels a weapon is finished but he has deadlines to meet so they’re done on deadline.

3:20 – Matt’s a big video gamer and games sometimes inspire him. But much of his work is history inspired. He uses lots of books and museums for history. He used to be part of some fighting societies but not anymore.

4:29 – He listens to all kinds of music and comedy while he’s working on weapons. Music inspires and helps kill the sounds of weapons making.

5:23 – He loves to hammer the tang over the pommel. He loves that last step and tries to do that on every weapon. His older brother got him into weapons making. He thought he might be an engineer or architect. Creating three-dimensional art is addictive. He’s used auto CAD and uses CNC tools to make the weapons.

7:22 – The first time he sold a folded steel Damascus sword he knew he wanted to stay with weapons making. You won’t get rich making weapons so you have to love it.

8:09 – Sword makers used to be social outcasts but Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings changed that. Weapons makers are cool now. They’re just grungy guys in a shop thought but he loves making his fans happy. Things changed around 2000 when the fantasy stuff started coming out.

10:14 – He’s a huge Zelda fan. He plays Pub G and Ark. He’s got a lightsaber handle that he can put a blade into. They’ve worked with Robert Rodriguez on a project. He loved Never Ending story and Flight of the Navigator when he was a kid. He liked a program about a football team that became knights of the Round Table (King Arthur and the Knights of Justice.)

12:04 – He wants to make some of the Star Wars hand-to-hand weapons. He wants to make Chaos Eater. He also wants to make the rapier from Princess Bride.

13:08 – He streams on twitch and his gamer tag is stalkertron. The Man At Arms: Reforged vidoes are online on AWE Me.

Links

https://playbattlegrounds.com/main.pu

http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292411/?ref_=nv_sr_2

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNKcMBYP_-18FLgk4BYGtfw

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Matt Stagmer

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: weapons, blacksmith, weaponsmaker, fantasy,

Weapons maker Alekseyev Ilya interview

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Alekseyev Ilya is a weapons maker, armorer, engraver and philosopher. I spoke to him at Magfest 2018 about his work with the Man At Arms Reforged show and other things.

2:03 – Alexei talks about the Kings of Avalon sword. He is proud of the amount of engraving he did for it. Engraving is his specialty.

3:18 – He is inspired sometimes by the subject matter. Sometimes the material he uses inspires him. The challenge of the project also inspires him.

4:17 – He’s a big fan of the Japanese tradition of sword smithing. They treat swords as artwork and have established traditions for this. Most other places in the world do not have a continuous culture of appraising swords and treating them as artwork.

6:43 – His library is the most important tool for his work. His classical literature collection is what is important to balance his skills. It helps to guide his hands.

9:20 – The two things he enjoys most are one, using the charcoal forge. The process is meditative. The second is engraving and chasing.

11:11 – He started weapons making in college when he needed a job while studying Philosophy. His first piece of armor was probably a chain mail shirt. His first sword was a Polish sabre. A 17th century one.

12:38 – His Philosophy thesis was on intellectual property.

17:29 – Philosophy is still a very big part of his life.

18:11 – He doesn’t remember his first professional sale. He works during the day on Baltimore Knife and Sword projects and after that he works on his personal weapon projects. He treats weapons as art objects not as something for violence.

20:19 – He was inspired by Tolkien just like everyone in the Western world. Anime has inspired him a lot. He really likes the anime Kill la Kill. Bladerunner is amazing to him. Zelany’s work is great food for the mind. Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles gave him an appreciation for American literature. Ghost in the Shell was and is amazing.   He knows the Stanislaw brothers works and enjoys them.

23:22 – He would like to make the Divined Jewel Spears of Heavens from the Kojiki. He would like to make one or both of Charlemagne’s swords. The saber was made in Russia and requires a lot of gold.

 

Links

http://imakeswords.com/

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

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

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

 

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Ilya Alekseyev

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: swordsmith, armor, engraving, philosophy, charlemagne, japanese swords, artistry, weapons, man at arms, baltimore knife and sword