How would it feel slicing up some cherry tomatoes with Sephiroth's Masamune, or chopping off the head of a fish with Squall's Gunblade? One diehard Final Fantasy fan will know exactly how it feels wielding those two swords and two others after receiving the coolest gift ever.
Britney Walloch, according to her fiancé Matt Key, is the definition of a Final Fantasy super fan. Every single wall on her house has something from Final Fantasy, he says. And when she plays Final Fantasy 9 and sees Bibi, her favorite character, onscreen, she cries. And guess what she wants to walk down the aisle to on their wedding day - the prelude to Final Fantasy.
She isn't just a Final Fantasy super fan, though; she also loves cooking. So her fiancé thought of contacting Super-Fan Builds to have them custom-make a gift that combines those two loves of hers.
The result is a four-piece cutlery set that are replicas of Sephiroth's Masamune, Cloud's Buster Sword, Auron's Katana, and Squall's Gunblade, designed and created by Tim Baker Creations.
Matt and Kerry Stagmer of Baltimore Knife & Sword, created the knife blades using 1084 high-carbon steel to help the edges stay sharp longer. After grinding, heat-treating, and polishing the blades, the Stagmer brothers sent them to Tim Baker for putting on the hilts, pommels and hand guards.
The first sword they worked on is Sephiroth's Masamune. Jeweler and sculptor Shawny Martin created the tsuba, the guard at the end of the sword's grip, from brass, and soldered the habaki to lock the tsuba in place. The hand grip is made from stingray leather blotted with white enamel to resemble the white shark leather grip of the Masamune.
The Buster Sword was up next. To replicate the same high-polish look on the knife's cutting edge, Baker sandblasted the sword with a tool called the rouge wheel before attaching the handle made from hand-tooled brass and silver filigreed by Martin and wrapped in a strip of leather taken from an old jacket.
Auron's Katana features a Victorian flourish made out of a brass plate that was cut for the hilt and filed down before being soldered to the blade.
Last but not the least is the Gunblade, the sword of choice for Squall Leonhart. The Gunblade is engraved with the Griever symbol and sandblasted to highlight the engraving. While Baker sent the blade for chroming, Martin created a lionhead charm out of carving wax. With the Gunblade now covered in a layer of chromium plating, Baker put on the finishing touches for the sword, including a cylinder made from epoxy and wooden handles.
Topping it all off is an Ultros knife block made from urethane sculpting foam and coated with a layer of fiberglass.
"It's the coolest thing in my house now," says an overjoyed Walloch. "Tim, this is a masterpiece. I'm just floored. I'm so honored."
We would be, too, if someone came up with the idea of creating a four-piece Final Fantasy kitchen knife set just for us.
