Sir Terry Pratchett forges a sword with a meteorite
English fantasy writer Sir Terry Pratchett smelt his own iron ore to create his knightly sword. To make things even more awesome, he threw in some pieces of meteorite.
Mon, Sep 20 2010 at 7:24 AM EST
Photo: FeatheredTar/Flickr English fantasy writer Terry Pratchett is totally awesome. After the best-selling novelist (65 million books sold worldwide) was knighted by the Queen, he made his own sword to go along with his other nightly accoutrement.
Not satisfied with just having a blacksmith make a custom piece, Pratchett actually went out into a field and dug up raw iron ore which he smelt into steel using a homemade kiln powered by sheep poop in his backyard. For an extra shot of magic he threw in a few pieces of meterorite.
Pratchett left the final metal work to a blacksmith, who forged it into a blade fit for a knight. Sadly he has to keep his sword in a secret location because strict British knife laws make no distinction for knights' swords and he fears its confiscation.
In 2007 Pratchett announced that he has early-onset Alzheimer's disease and is currently filming a documentary about his life for the BBC.
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