Oh, oh, oh, my God. So there you have it.
All right. It's Tod from Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and I'm back with Matt Easton of
Schola Gladiatoria. Hi. So thanks very much Matt and we have got another weird weapons one. We
did a series three or four of them, we should do more actually. I'm sure we will do. Yeah and here
we are and the series is called Weird Medieval Weapons where, simple thing, I've got a covered
up thing, you know nothing about it, I hand it to you and well first thing guess what it is,
second thing. Right oh oh it's pretty heavy oh my God. And then we talk about it. I need to work out
a bit more this is so it's big yeah and I can feel what feels like a cross guard. Yeah right,
so the first thing I have to admit is the weird medieval weapons were about
as far away from that as we could be. So you ready? Okay no idea; is this modern?
is it fantasy? It's sort of modern. Oh oh oh my God and there you are, oh my God it's huge. Oh
Jesus, so that is in fact, that is in fact, Clive Rosfield's sword from Final Fantasy 16,
which is out now everybody. Right it's a thing isn't it? So when people ask me if
I weight lift I can now say I do... yes. One of the lovely bits of artwork that I
was given to follow when I made this replica, so I've done this for Square Enix actually
the makers of the game, is Clive Rosfield just walking along casually with this in one hand,
different man to me though actually. Oh. Because I can't do that. Blimey Matt you're all right.
How much does this weigh? I actually haven't weighed it, maybe we should weigh it.
Whilst I'm looking for scales, Matt's still playing.
So it's a moment for both of us here how much does it weigh? I reckon about 15 pounds. Ahh you'd
be about right actually, so that's about
seven seven and a half kilos... so seven... fifteen...Eighteen pounds. Lightweight.
So first of all what the heck is going on and why am I doing this kind of thing at all? Well
I used to do special effects, I used to do prop making and then you know history just took over
my world and you know me for historical swords, weapons videos, however it's actually you Matt
who put me onto this company, you recommended me to them yeah and I got the contract to make this
thing. So so this is Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 16. so this is the main hero called Clive....Which
is a brilliant main hero name. And Clive Rosfield, and uh this is his sword. Is that
is his sword yeah so um basically I'll talk you around it because not everything as it
seems which is what one of the reasons I wanted to do this video because it's
quite an interesting thing. So we're going to start with simple construction stuff.
So basically you can see here in fact that uh the way the guard is constructed
um there is a split line here well as you can see from the original artwork there isn't but this
comes down to uh well computer games. You don't have to worry when you're designing a sword in a
computer game how it is actually constructed yeah um so the problem is this whole blade element here
actually enclosed the guard, so it just simply wouldn't have been possible to make it like that.
Then the other thing is I work with machinery, I don't really work with
sort of handheld grinders or anything like that, so I can't bolt this to a bench and work on it.
Now as you notice for hours and hours that are required to actually make this thing an 18 pound
object is it's actually really hard work for me to process it, because also not only am I having to
hold it, I'm having to work accurately right and that's really hard when you get tired and you're
starting to shake. In fact this thing is a cheat yeah, it's hollow. So you know Ash don't you? Yeah
yeah great bloke, great armourer, he made that section for me. Right okay so it's kind of like
a so kind of like a car body essentially it's a it's a steel fabrication over a skeleton yes,
so that's solid up to here then it's hollow um and then these plates here the natural thing when
you look at it is that it would be cast as that form that would be the the way you'd go about it
really. yeah um but you know you just can't, I didn't want it solid so I couldn't do that,
so those are actually made of separate plates and then just sandwiched on layered on and then
just welded into place as we go. What's funny is actually there's some antique swords that I've
um handled and and owned that are not dissimilar construction to that from Indian Indo-Persian
weapons. Oh really? So if we like to look at certain types of Indian uh basket hilts uh
found on Candor for example in Ferangi, they're often built up of sheets and they would normally
be riveted together um sometimes forge welded, um but essentially you do end up with a box section,
so you end up with something that's much bulkier than you know it's like a bit like hollow pommels.
I guess medieval pommels and a hollow made up of sheets essentially so you end up with
a blocky construction but it's not solid because it would be ludicrously heavy yeah. [Laughter]
But yeah that's one of the interesting things actually that you see on European
weapons particularly I'm guessing actually in other cultures as well, is that parts are not
always solid, they look solid they're made to look solid, but actually they're they're not,
because otherwise they're carrying too much weight. And in essence that's exactly what
I've done here. And I honestly think if I was interpreting even as like an archaeologist you
know if I was, if Final Fantasy was a medieval manuscript and I was looking at it and going
well that was a real weapon it must have been bulk sectioned like that we know that certain
weapons you know whether it's discs on Rondel daggers or certain types of pommel which have
got hollow sections or Indian basket hilts we know that historically people have made
things like that, so that would make sense, because if it was solid you couldn't justify
the added weight. No so no but also you get sort of like little weirdo weapons,
God this is so should be a weird weapons with Matt Easton, like the telescopic rapiers,
there you've heard it here first people. Yeah I really want to play with one of those, they would
be perfect for weird weapons. Make it happen. Just got to leave it six months now. Can I just switch
arms because I have to say this is uh I think I call it a military press in the in the gym.
Oh nice yeah if you rest it yeah yeah I'll do that. Cheating. Clive has mega deltoids
I reckon. I reckon he does. And we're coming up, cylindrical grip? yeah not a fan no I I
so you know I I often complain about cylindrical grips because I prefer a grip you can instantly
feel which direction the edge is pointing in, but I always have to caveat that with
the fact that there are historical weapons with cylindrical grips, there's some Indian swords,
there's certain types of axes, quite a lot of rondels yeah lots of little rondel daggers which
you could argue maybe the edge alignment doesn't matter so much with rondels, but then we sort of
found that didn't we? We were looking at stabbing through metal with that. Yeah yeah so so yeah I'm
not personally a fan of cylindrical grips but they do exist in in history, so funnily enough I was
looking at this section and you constructed it as a box section which is obviously the right way to
to make it and down here is a solid blade we have some maybe parallel with some of the specialised
armoured fighting swords where you have blunt sections for the blade up here which are
specifically designed for gripping and one of the things if I can just take it back for a second,
one of the things I looked at this this is almost set up perfectly, yeah so that actually
doesn't look massively different to some of the specialised armoured fighting swords in Talhofer,
Codex Wallerstein, things like this and we do have surviving examples there's two in Vienna in
the in the Arsenal in Vienna, there so the fact that you've got this um sort of ridge here you
could say that that's sort of a hand stop or hand protection. So I kind of actually I think this is
within us you know if within a specific fantasy scenario you could understand how a weapon like
that might develop and if it's maybe for you know killing slaying giant powerful creatures and stuff
and you need a super heavy weapon and you are yourself super strong, stronger than us, then
you know an 18 pounds two-handed sword that you can half sword with. And actually when you're half
swording with it it's not too bad at all; it's actually quite nimble. Oh you're making it up!
Well no honestly when you are half swording it's yeah okay it's heavy it's heavier than any polaxe
I've ever held, but it's into that kind of realm. Holding it two-handed by the grip oh my gosh that
I mean it's if you want to imagine if you pick up a 14 pound Sledgehammer it feels quite like that,
but people use 14 pounds sledgehammers. So 13 pounds is that long yeah that's true,
you know you've got a different leverage. Although what's the point of balance on
this? Oh oh actually that's actually about where you'd expect, so it does actually balance well,
you'd expect to someone to balance that might also... My God I'm good aren't I?
Who'd have thought that?But that might actually be something to do with the fact that the guard
um started out as a block of steel seven centimeters by five centimeters thick right,
so that might be part of it and then well you come you come down to the end here and you've actually
have obviously for a blade of that kind of weight and I think you could say it's got blade presence.
It's got everything present! But the pommel is actually visually quite small, in in if you're
trying to logicalize this realm, in this game, you obviously have a lot of solid mass here,
I think either that has to be something super light or super hollow and maybe in the converse
of that, is that the pommel is actually super dense, so you know maybe this is like
super Diamond Titanium or something and that's depleted uranium or whatever it may be. I mean
theoretically you could make these hilt parts and some sections of the blade out
of something like aluminum couldn't you and and that would drastically bring the weight down,
but of course it wouldn't be as strong as steel or but if they had a material which was as strong as
steel but as light as aluminum then that changes the parameters completely. Yeah one thing I wanted
to say about the pommel is I actually really love this ridge because it's such a weighty blade
actually to stop your to stop your hands slipping off the end. That ridge actually slips between the
between the fingers and it just gives you an extra little hand stop at the bottom, because not being
an especially large pommel it would be quite easy for your hand to just slide off the end otherwise.
So I really like how that.. well swing it! yeah yeah absolutely with some momentum yeah. So I
really like how that locks in there, actually I'd be quite a fan of that on any other sword.
That's interesting yeah but I mean, I suppose it's something thing that we will never know,
actually is the sword designer or the team of designers who put this together
were they just designing something that looked cool or were they actually giving
thought to function? Or you know these are the things that we'll never really quite know.
Because you could argue again that that gap there is actually fantastic for blade trapping it,
really is yeah and that obviously as far as you're concerned has a good function in that ring there.
Was it there just because it's pretty and it looks cool or did they literally did they go "that would
be a great place for the last two fingers" Have you ever seen there's something called
the Spear of Destiny and.... So that's not the band? No so that's a Carolingian lance that was
um came to be believed was the one that lanced Jesus on the cross, but they added a load of
sort of cladding to it essentially and what's interesting is this almost looks like what was
a conventional big long sword that's had it's a bit like Spear of Destiny cladding that's
been added onto it for some forgotten arcane religious or ceremonial purpose you know,
so being a typical archaeologist, I'm going to say this definitely has ritual connotations.
Right so I think this is a bearing sword. So you know I think within the Final Fantasy uh
kind of universe I could say yeah I could imagine where this might be a relic sword
that had things added to it and was maybe in the temple and then came back into use again
as a you know you could definitely make up a backstory to this. yeah yeah Well I'm sure,
I'm sure there is a backstory; can you hold it now because I'm getting tired. I can absolutely,
I've absolutely patented the way I'm gonna have this one. I don't need to go to the gym for like
a week now. No. But I suppose another thing that I'd like to highlight actually about this is is
it's a little bit grubby, it's a little bit dinged, it's a little bit.... but that's
actually deliberate. So I specifically asked them how they wanted it treating; so did they
want it absolutely brand new, virginal? Did they want it a little bit used? Did they want it like
it saved the universe 20 times? And they went for the little bit used option and you know so
I aged it down you know and I used it down with quite a selection of chemicals actually,
ferric chloride, peroxide and salt is a really good and nice aggressive one and just scrub it
in and wash it down, clean it off. Don't just put one colour on a the guard and go "its aged now",
that's fine if it's 30 meters back at the back of a fight scene okay, if it's being looked at,
it's it's about layers, because life is about layers. It's about something happened
last Tuesday, but something happened four months before that yeah, and you've got to build it up.
The damage and wear that it builds up over time is all from different causes and at different times.
Like you say so one might be a splash of blood one might be some rain you know..... Exactly that
yeah. And it just gives ironically more reality to the object. And it looks like a real weapon,
it's made out of real steel and it's you know it's made of the materials, I mean the leather wrapped
grip is made completely traditionally um with you know it looks like a top-end reproduction Medieval
sword, so it's it looks like a real thing instead of a lot of props we're used to seeing that look
like they're made of plastic or you know modern materials. I think one of the reasons that I moved
away from special effects and prop making that kind of thing is I sort of didn't have interest
in the materials, I love real materials, I love metal you know, steel, brass, leather, wood
you know those are the things I like working with yeah and so if they come to me; you know
I could have made this out of polyurethane, sprayed it silver and gone "there you go",
yeah it would hold no interest for me. And actually I think as well the signature of the
maker is different because you work with steel and you get a steel object out of it that's been
made of steel. You you work with plastic and you can kind of make it look like steel but the
the signature of what you've done isn't steel, you know and I'm such a big believer in in the
subconscious and you you might know nothing about making stuff but you just know it's not made of
steel. And you know that one you know it's made to steel. You know and I wouldn't want to get hit
by that. I think you would you would stay hit. I think you would stay hit. So there you have it,
Final Fantasy 16 sword, definitely a Weird Weapon, but next time you see the Weird Weapon Series
we'll come back with something medieval again rather than fantasy. Maybe a telescopic rapier
although I think that's quite a challenge, but we'll come up with something........
I've nailed it! You'll see in due time. Anyway see you guys, thanks very much. Cheers.
Well I guess you thought that was it and so did I but I've realised something very cool indeed.
I took the contract to make the Final Fantasy sword and I knew all along that
it was going to get displayed in the Tower of London, but I just didn't think about it,
I just didn't think about it. I was too worried about the sword itself, making that,
but I have just seen a promo film about where it's getting displayed and how you can go see
it and all that kind of stuff. It's in the Tower of London. My work is in the armouries where the
Kings of England's armour and weapons are stored. The best armourers, medieval armourers of of
England and of big chunks of Europe made the stuff that is in that room and my work is there too now;
only for a month. However that is just brilliant, so grinning from ear to ear because for me that is
such a big deal, but go check this promo film out, it's very cool. Anyway I'll see you again. Bye.
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