There was a young man with a passion for swords ever since he was a boy. It was unclear where this passion came from, but it had always been there. Maybe it had something to do with the knights passing by the house every day in the morning to get to the castle or seeing the king at the yearly parade.

And thus from a young age the man had always been making swords with anything he was able to work with.

When asking his father to help him with materials or crafting, the father said to the boy, “Oh you and your swords… it’s always swords…”. But he never gave up on making the object he loved the most.

Eventually the materials got more serious like steel, iron and brass, but there is only so much you can learn on your own. The young man was stuck with a quality he did like, but he had seen knights with even better, beautiful and shining swords.

He struggled for a while… There had to be a way to become better…

The man researched ways to get better. Black magic wasn’t an option, because he would never sell his soul. The only way at this point was to struggle on and keep making swords to improve his skills. The passion still burned bright, but he wasn’t happy with his work. Even though once in a while an adventurer would buy them.

I’m Roy van Slooten, I live the Netherlands together with my wife and two cats and I’m a swordsmith. I’ve always had a passion and interest for classical fantasy and the middle ages and the greatest symbol for the both are swords in my opinion.

A lot of people ask me how I got into making swords, well let me tell you. A few years back my wife gave me a gift certificate for a knife making workshop at Smederij Atelier Alkmaar. I never went to do the workshop, but instead started their first year of learning to be a swordsmith, so that escalated quickly.

Currently I’m in their advanced class learning to forge weld and thus creating Damascus steel (many people call this Valerian steel since the Game of Thrones series), set stones and hand engrave.