African Arms

This website is devoted to rich cultural recreations of African weapons circa 13th through 19th century. On all of my works I use simple hand tools and traditional methods according to the historical location of each weapon. When forging I use an electric blower, which acts as my assistant. This mirrors the African blacksmith who in the middle ages, and still today, has an assistant in charge of blowing continuous air through the clay tuyere of the forge with animal skin bellows. At African Arms no matter the material it is all worked by muscle to ensure an authentic hand made look. I am a design based recreator and I invite all to visit my Designs page for a more detailed description of my process.

Here at African Arms you will find a diverse assortment of weapons such as swords, knives, axes, spears, and knobkerries (clubs) from a wide range of polities. All of my pieces are historically based drawing from historical accounts, period paintings/drawings, publications, and ceremonial and functional examples found in museums. I also happen to be a collector of African weapons and therefore make each piece to capture the essence of the medieval African blacksmiths. This is achieved by forging each blade extremely close to its final shape edges and all (which isn't the easiest thing to do) and requires a great amount of focus and significantly lessens the need for reducing stock. And when properly polished my blades display the natural organic nature of many native African made blades.

My recreations are determinately made well balanced, strong, and durable enough to please not only the African warriors of old but also the modern martial arts practioner. Each of my blades are able to face and conquer all the challenges of the typical survival situation. Meaning, my blades are built with the original purpose in mind, to attack an opponent's body, wood, cloth, and the bush while retaining an edge made to be personally rehoned. My edges are hardened to the point I find most ideal for handling these demands and delivering high performance toughness and durability; both soft enough to avoid chipping and hard enough to avoid rolling. I use three basic methods of edge hardening, all found on the African continent : a form of zone hardening(carefully and precisely pouring water along the edge), work hardening(which involves a lot of time and annealing and greatly condenses the carbon found in the steel), and liquid submersion(which cools and hardens rapidly). With every blade I forge I strike several times into wood in order to test its edge retention before its final polish. And I still take time out every once and a while to perform destruction tests in which the blade is placed under extreme abnormal stress (cutting/hitting trees, hacking at steel, bending until it sets or breaks, etc.). When forging my blades I use either a transportable "Tim Lively style" forge of assorted sizes or a ground forge. I use plain high, medium, and low carbon steels. I exercise multiple stages of normalization and annealing to produce tough blades with fine grain structure. I utilize two primary types of anvils, a stake anvil of mild steel and a good smooth powerful stone anvil. I also forge on the face of a large sledgehammer. To polish my blades I use stones, grit papers, and leather hide.

When making my hilts and mounts, I work in exotic African woods as well as other engaging woods from all over the world. I also employ precious metals such as gold, brass, copper, bronze, and occasionally silver. Other materials used are ivory and horn. As for my sheaths, all are made in the traditional style of each individual region. The geographical origin determines whether a wooden or a leather sheath is employed and whether that leather sheath has a wooden core or a wood fiber (a card like material) core. All of my sheaths are very durable and built to last when properly taken care of. You have my word that nothing leaves my shop unless it is historically presentational heirloom quality. You have the choice to either hang these recreations on your wall as fine art pieces or use them for cutting up melons and straw mat enemies in your backyard.

17th century Dutch painting "A vendor of 'rareties'". Hanging on the wall is one of the few survivng examples of an antiqued functional Akofena of the Akan people. Best seen when copied to Word and magnified.