My sister is quite the Lord of the Rings fan, so for her birthday this year I made her a wooden copy of the sword Orcrist. Well, technically it’s scaled down about 20% to make it more reasonable for her height.

The idea was not my own – it was Paul Jenkins who did it first.

I shaped the blade and tang from a piece of anonymous hardwood, using planes and spokeshaves to get the bevels just right. The other embellishments were made from sandwiched pieces of walnut. It took a lot of delicate cutting, shaping to make sure that all the pieces matched up the way they were supposed to.