Bronze devotees forge an ancient sword at Trent
Recalling the Game of Thrones era, ancient bronze sword making demonstration wows students
Trent University students gathered around tables arranged in the Great Hall to show off modern-made bronze objects in a special presentation on Thursday.
The World of Game of Thrones bronze sword-casting demonstration was presented by the university’s Archeological Research Centre.
“As a Trent alumnus, I’ve wanted to do this for a number of years now to bridge the gap between the enthusiast and academic communities,” said Jordan Dills, a Trent master of arts in anthropology graduate.
Dills became interested in metallurgy and the Bronze Age after he went on an archeological dig to the Greek island of Crete and discovered ancient metallic objects.
Dills worked alongside his partner Patrick Kenny on the sword casting demonstration. Dills says Kenny is not trained in the classical sense but has more practical skills as Kenny has been a bronze making enthusiast for a number of years.
“With Kenny’s know how and my historical knowledge I think we bring a full package.” Dills said.
The Bronze Age lasted from as early as 3300 BC in south Asia to as late as 300 BC in East Asia.
Bronze is a metal alloy made from cop-
per and usually tin. Sometimes non-metals or metalloids are used, producing a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties.
Ellie Tamura, a second-year masters student in archeology, said she came to see the presentation because she knew of Dills’ work but had only ever seen it on paper.
Tamura said she became interested in archeology and the ancient world because she finds it fascinating to learn about ancient cultures and learning how people used to live and how it has change through time.
Seeing the casting of a bronze sword for her was extremely eye opening.
“I thought you needed like this big forge, and a whole bunch of metal, high heat and huge furnaces,” Tamura said.
“But, you can actually do it in this relatively small space with minimal equipment.”
Dills and Kenny had a relatively small set-up with heating unit powered by propane that would heat their crucible made out of an old propane tank to around 1000
C.
Using tongs Kenny pulled a red hot glowing melting pot filled with molten copper and tin from the crucible and tipped its contents into a wooden mold for a roman style gladuis sword that had been prepared.
After a couple of minutes the metal had hardened enough to be removed from the mold and was quenched to make it safe to handle.
Passing the unfinished piece of metal around it had mostly looked like a sword but with a few extra bits where the metal had leaked out from the mold.
Despite its imperfections it still made the students eyes widen as it was passed from person to person marvelling at what they had just seen be made.
Dills says that he hopes people when people walk away they do so with a interest in metallurgy and gap between the enthusiasts and academics has been smaller.