Joseph Easttom pulls legendary swords, war hammers and battle axes from the pages of history and fantasy fiction and puts them in the hands of certain art collectors, historical re-enactors, Renaissance Festival goers and family.

“It’s mostly people who are fascinated by old weapons who want something really authentic,” Easttom said. “The whole point is to have these items to connect to history.”

A few customers have told Easttom that they wished they would have lived back then.

“I don’t think they have taken into account the lack of sanitation and modern medicine,” he said with a chuckle.

His swordsmithing process matches the period during which the weapon was produced, using traditional methods, forge, anvil and hammer to produce functional works of art.

He says no to requests for swords that are not functional,  for example the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy, and the Atlantean Sword from Conan the Barbarian.

“Even Arnold Scharzenegger –  and this was when he was 34 – said it was too heavy. There’s a challenge with embellishment, when you add silver and raised inlays and things like that. Does the item still function for its intended use, or has it become purely decorative. I like exploring the interchange between. Yes, it’s highly decorative, but it’s still fully functional.”

Easttom has a tough time narrowing down his favorite weapons periods because “so many are interesting,” he said. “Work right now is around 800, I think they refer to this as the migration era. Maybe a little after. You have the Germanic tribes, the Jutes, Angles and Saxons.    

Swords are a common motif used in fantasy fiction. Harry Potter wielded the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy Lord Voldemort’s diary. Jon Snow used Longclaw against the White Walkers in Game of Thrones and In the Lord of the Rings, Narsil was used to cut off Sauron’s ring finger.

Easttom is in the early stages of creating the three swords from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, contemporary fantasy mystery  novels.

Using an 1800s wrought iron logging nail as symbolic of a nail from the cross, inlaid silver and diamonds in the engraved Constellation of Ursa Major, Easttom has already created one Dresden-inspired beauty, the Sword of Love, Amoracchius, for his father-in-law.

More than a bladesmith, a swordsmith and master jeweler

There are other bladesmiths in the state who make knives, and every once in a while, they might do a sword. Easttom is a swordsmith, and has been for 20 years. He is likely the only one in the state. Some of his swords are studded with genuine gemstones, even diamonds.

He spent 12 years in the jewelry industry, including being a master goldsmith for a local jeweler. He completed a journeyman stint in Natchez, Mississippi with a 50-year bench veteran, and he is a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America. He pulls a good-sized, pear-shaped purplish gemstone from a drawer. An amethyst? Not just any amethyst.

“See the flashes of red and blue inside the stone as you move it, “ Easttom noted. This is an African amethyst, different from the ones from South America.

History Channel Forged in Fire judge David Baker is a family friend and the Easttoms have invited him to Moss Bluff to take a crash course in jewelry.       

Easttom makes custom jewelry, jewelry created from heirloom pieces to produce a next-generation heirloom piece, and his wife Rachel makes leather goods. Customers also trust Easttom with their jewelry repairs.

In January, Easttom turned his passion into a business, Plus 5 Armory at 869 Sam Houston Jones Parkway, Moss Bluff. He is married to his high school sweetheart Rachael and the couple have four children – thus the name. They were at the shop on Thursday, getting ready to put out jewelry for holiday shoppers.

When Easttom does make knives, culinary are his favorite, and a sharp knife that feels a certain way in the hand while using it can be a thing of beauty, but they do not create the awe of the next item Easttom produces, a gemstone encrusted Persian-inspired assassin’s dagger with openings along its edge for weaving cordage soaked with poison.

Behind Eastom’s desk is a sword stand. On display is a cutlass based off of the British 1796 light cavalry saber. The second, Easttom made for his oldest son, a type 16 arming sword, a versatile blade good for both cutting and thrusting. It is engraved with Latin. Easttom translates. “My beloved son and heir to my house,” is on one side and on the other,  “A step is a thing we take together.”

The Viking era sword has Frankish fittings.  The type 10 from Oakeshott’s typology is what the army of William the Conqueror would have been using when they invaded England in 1066. The type 14  with an extremely narrow point and very rigid blade would have been ubiquitous throughout Europe in the 1400s.

Metal ring and knuckle style weapons were also used in ancient times and all over the world, but probably none like the one in the Plus 5 Armory very unassuming office/shop. It is a 144 layer pattern welded damascus knuckles with 18 Karat yellow gold inlays and .80 carat total weight of natural diamonds set upside down, Pavilion or pointy end up.

“Yes, knuckle-style weapons are legal in Louisiana, but not in Texas and other states so I can’t ship them.     

If Easttom had to pick one sword and one sword only to use to protect his family he said he would choose a rapier from the 15, 1600s.

“It’s an extremely long, narrow blade with full hand protection. I’m not much of a fighter,” the self-prescribed pacifist said.