Cutting-edge television
WE DO LIKE our traditional crafts, don’t we? And in recent years they’ve inspired all manner of TV programmes, particularly the competitive kind. Who’s the best baker? Who’s the best potter? Who’s best at sewing, painting or carving random stuff out of wood?
(My favourite episode of Britain’s Best Woodworker, by the way, was when they had to make giant wooden creepy-crawlies. It’s still on Channel 4’s streaming wotsit if you had the misfortune to miss it.)
Yes, the list of these crafting competitions is endless. Well, all right, it isn’t but it’s certainly a lot longer than it used to be. Britain, it seems, simply can’t get enough of these shows.
So might I be so bold as to suggest yet another? Namely, the Great British Sword-Making Challenge. OK, I doubt they’d use the hyphen – TV bosses can never get their heads around those – but other than that I can very much visualise that title in the listings, possibly in the slot currently occupied by Interior Design Masters With Alan Carr.
And who’d be its resident judge? Why, Owen Bush, of course. I’m surprised you had to ask.
Not familiar with Owen? In that case, take a look tonight at THE COASTAL MAP OF BRITAIN (8pm, Channel 5) because it’s there you’ll find this renowned bladesmith demonstrating his sword-making skills.
It’s part of a segment about Cornish tin, explaining why, thousands of years ago, people would travel to Cornwall from all over the world to get their hands on the stuff, much as they do now to pay Rick Stein £37 for two portions of his takeaway fish’n’chips (although, to be fair, they were very nice and we did have two lots of tartare sauce and mushy peas as well).
Such was its purity, Cornish tin was highly valued. Melt tin with copper, you see, and you get bronze. Which opens up oodles of exciting options. “You can quickly cast lots of different tools,” Owen explains. “Farm implements, swords, daggers, spears…”
Owen goes on to demonstrate the sword-making thing.And this is where I’m thinking they’ve surely got to make this a regular show. Not least because the stuff sets in next to no time.Yes, OK, it would require the contestants to work with molten metal at over 1,000 degrees C but every show needs a bit of jeopardy, right?
“It’s exciting,” says Owen. “And there’s always a little bit of adrenaline when you’re pouring bronze…” There you go, see.
And Owen’s verdict on his latest piece of weaponry? “It looks good,” he decides, as he removes it from its mould. “I mean it’s basically a finished object. It needs a tiny bit of sharpening, but that’s almost good to use...”