Hammer & Ember
Lighting the forge0
Bladesmiths · Semois Valley, Belgium · Since 2009
Two smiths, one coal forge, and a waiting list. We forge pattern-welded swords to commission — one at a time, by hand, from raw billet to living edge.
01Fold
We stack bright 15N20 nickel steel between plates of 1095 high-carbon, forge-weld the stack at 1,260 °C, then cut it, restack it and weld it again — nine times, until one bar holds 512 layers and a pattern no one could plan.
02Forge
Steel moves like cold clay at 1,100 °C and cracks below cherry, so we hammer only while it glows. Roughly four hundred blows draw the bar into a blade, set the bevels and bring the point.
03Quench
At 800 °C the blade goes point-first into brine held at 50 °C. The edge freezes into hard martensite; the spine stays springy. It is the most frightening second of the month — a hidden flaw shows itself here, or never.
04Polish
Three days on waterstones from 120 to 8,000 grit, by hand, along the length. Then a bath of ferric chloride eats the carbon layers dark and leaves the nickel bright — and the pattern the hammer made finally surfaces.
The steel
Pattern-welded steel is not decoration. Hard layers carry the edge, soft layers take the shock, and the figure you see on the flat is a literal map of how the metal was moved.
1095 carbon steel and 15N20 nickel steel, forge-welded in nine folds.
Measured after decarburisation losses in the fire.
Differentially tempered: a hard edge on a spring-soft spine of 48.
From the first weld to the last pass on the 8,000 stone.
Commissions · 2027 list
Every commission begins with a conversation at the forge, or on a call if you are far away. You choose the form; the steel chooses its pattern. Lead time is currently fourteen months.
Seax
Broken-back single edge, 38–60 cm. Bog-oak grip, bronze ferrule, riveted leather sheath.
from €4,800
Petersen Type X
Pattern-welded core with a fuller, 91 cm. Cast-bronze guard and lobed pommel with knotwork carved by hand.
from €9,600
Oakeshott XVIIIa
Stiff, diamond-section longsword, 112 cm. Wrought-iron guard, wire-bound grip, fitted scabbard.
from €14,500
Owners
“I asked for a sword my grandfather would have recognised. They sent me a photograph of the billet after every fold.”
Ingrid Vestli · Bergen · Type X, 2024
“Tap the flat and it rings for eleven seconds. I have timed it more often than I would like to admit.”
Tomás Rivera · Seville · Seax, 2023
“Fourteen months on the list. I would have waited three years.”
K. Morimoto · Kyoto · Longsword, 2025
The quench
Cooled · etched · yours
Tell us what it is for, who will carry it and how it should feel in the hand. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right smiths for it.