Make no mistake, I am and always will be a geek. Growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons and a lover of all things fantasy.  Throughout those early years, my youth was dominated by painting miniatures and creating custom fantasy landscapes and castles in my mother’s basement. (No, I don’t still live there.)  My brothers, close friends, and I  would game every weekend and became regular judges at the early Gen Con gaming conventions. I carried my passion throughout years of college, where I eventually graduated and became a Mathematics professor (it seemed like the only way to never have to leave college and get a real job), a career I held  for the next 30 years. (I know, did he say mathematics professor?  What a geek.)  

Throughout my career, my love of all things fantasy never faded, my brothers and my own children still gather every holiday season for days of non-stop gaming. I retired from academia in 2021 and decided as a hobby, I would pursue my secret lifelong desire to create fantasy blades, like the ones I had imagined throughout my younger years.  Just as Dungeons and Dragons did when I was 15, bringing my fantasy blades to life soon became much more than a pastime; it became an obsession.

I am not a trained artist and I am not a smith and I am my harshest critic. My craft is self taught, although I must credit Kirill Runz for his Youtube videos depicting his awe inspiring artistry.  (Kirill lives in the Ukraine and his fate weighs heavy on my mind during these troubling days.) His unbelievable work encouraged me to etch my fantasy blades with the dreams of monsters and adventures that filled my mis-spent youth. I must also thank ABS Master Smith, Kyle Royer, as his videos taught me everything I know about fit and finish, which is the part of blade creation that my work focuses upon. This seems to be the world we live in today where my two biggest inspirations and teachers live on youtube, people I have never met and probably never will.  

So this is how the Guild of the Gilded Hilt came to be.  (The name was actually thought up by my Dungeons and Dragons group in the early eighties when we believed we would start our own role playing game company.  Another dream of my geekish childhood left unfulfilled)