Vardhllokur – spirit song 2009 A viking sword from across the border of myth. This sword is a 3 bar composite pattern welded construction. The edge billet is 61 layers and the two center billets are 9 layers each, the steels used in it’s construction are 1075 and 8670m. The …
I filmed this with help from my dad (Peter Powning) and a tripod back in 2009. It demonstrates some of the process of making the Viking sword Vardhllokur. It was edited by the good people at Galatia Films for the special features of the movie “Reclaiming The Blade”. If you’re …
This is a preview of a DVD which includes two presentations that I did at the Arctic Fire Swordsmithing event in Alaska in June of 2012, as well as several interviews. There is also footage of Swordsmiths Michael Pikula, David Delagardelle, Don Fogg, Peter Johnsson and J. Arthur Loose. This …
The sun cuts low through winter trees, woodsmoke hangs in the air. Walking through the forest one day I find what’s left of a raven dance, the steps clear in the snow. I can see where a raven has scratched it’s beak back and forth drawing concentric lines. As part …
I rise before the sun, the scratchy radio voices catalog what bad things have happened in the world while I slept. But the world tells a different story– out the old farmhouse window the dawn blooms impossible colours against the somnabulant landscape. Two ravens sit warily in the orchard on …
Snowshoe to work. Snow like frozen waves across the field. Buds frost spiked. Brush wolf tracks across watering hole. Startling green watercress. Patterns emerge amid lengthening days. More storms blow through, the world is blue tinged inside where windows are blocked by snowdrifts. The wind whistles high through a crack …
Snow falls on snow, then more snow falls. Somewhere in the forested hills the bear sow and her cubs hibernate and the moose shifts about in his winter yard. It is snowshoe weather, too deep for skis. I spent the day yesterday shoveling the snow from the roof of my …
In the spring of 2009 I documented several swords at the British Museum and the Wallace Collection In London UK. While there, I photographed many of the artifacts on display in the prehistory and Europe section of the British Museum. This kind of expedition is like a cattle raid of …
This is a tutorial I did in 2003. It was the first composite pattern welded sword I made and I can still remember the nervous excitement of planning the project. I received a grant from my local arts funding organization (Arts NB) to give me the time to make the …