Author Archives: Valyrian

Well, the time has come. We are now accepting preorders on Longclaw! Now now, obviously the order functionality is new, this is our first product, so if you notice any bugs or oddities, please contact us. Also, all pictures are of the prototype and they may change slightly, depending on feedback with them. So Order Now. Please read all the information on the product page before ordering, lots of important stuff there.

Here is a list of shipping costs for Longclaw by country, these are all the countries people have previously asked about, if your country is not on this list, please speak up.

Countries where the postal service will accept extra large boxes:
USA: $20
Great Britain & Northern Ireland: $70
Canada: $40
Ireland: $70
Italy: $70
France: $70
Germany $70
Switzerland $70
Sweden $70
Holland $70
Austria $70
Belgium $70
Spain: $70
Denmark $70
Luxembourg $70
New Zealand $90
Norway $70

Countries where the postal service has a 42 inch maximum, which means it has to go UPS:

Australia $350
Russia *not yet figured, need addresses
Hungary *not yet figured, need addresses
Singapore *not yet figured, need addresses
Argentina *not yet figured, need addresses
Phillipines *not yet figured, need addresses
Israel *not yet figured, need addresses
Slovenia *not yet figured, need addresses

Countries cannot ship to because swords aren’t allowed by customs, sorry.
Japan
Mexico
Portugal
Greece

In all cases it is advised that customers check with local authorities to make sure they do not need a special license to buy a sword. Also, in almost all cases there will be taxes/duties you will have to pay upon arrival, we have no control over these nor do we know how much they will be. Every country has their own import tax rates.

Okay, here is Needle. The blade will be about 30 inches, we’ve held that up to varying girls around Arya’s age and that seems to be an appropriate length.

We went through quite a few design revisions with Needle. Originally we were going to do a rapier style blade, as I’m sure many of us picture the Braavosi blades to be, however, GRRM pointed out that Mikken was not a Braavosi smith and despite the fact that eventually Arya would be trained by a Braavosi and that Jon meant for her to learn that different style is does not mean Mikken would be up to making a fancy rapier.

So what we have is a very thin bladed sword in that style, but without all the fancier hilt adornments. Mikken’ mark, as it were, is etched on the blade near the hilt.

The best part about Needle is this, it should be much quicker to get to market than Longclaw has been, we don’t need to do any tinkering with funky blade finished to get a Valyrian style, it is just a simple blade. Right now GRRM is in Europe and when he returns hopefully we will have technical drawings for his approval, at which point we’ll be able to start on the prototype for the blade and then hopefully get it released as soon as possible.

We will try to have the blade done in high carbon steel, but there are issues involved in mass production that can dictate the type of metal we use, and we’re not going to want to sacrifice quality in other areas, such as hilt construction, by using high carbon steel.

On the topic of Longclaw, we will start taking preorders by Monday. Initial preorders will be paid by check or money order, the retail price on Longclaw will be $240. Again, the edition size on all of our blades is 2500 pieces, and they all come with autographed COAs as well as edition numbers individually laser etched into the back of the blade. We estimate Longclaw arriving in the 4th quarter of this year. Then hopefully Needle can be available by the first quarter of 2009.

We’ve gotten the final approvals and issues worked out with Longclaw, production is now starting, we should have pictures of the prototype being taken this week, with preorders starting the first week of July, at least for mail orders.

The Needle concept art has been approved. So we’ll now move forward with the technical drawings on it, we should be posting some of that concept art soon as well.

We received the final Longclaw approvals back from GRRM today. This means we’re really really close. There are a few changes we need to do, just minor things, but as soon as those are done and we have a proof we’ll get some photos taken, put them up, and start taking preorders.

The main change that I think you all may be interested in is that we’ve decided to make the plaque white on gray. As you may recall the idea is that a bastard will use his father’s colors in reverse, however originally we were doing white on black instead of white on gray, as would be the case since the Stark colors are gray on white. Once we had the first prototype though we noticed a mockup of a gray plaque looked better, and well, since it was technically more accurate GRRM agreed and we decided to go with it instead.

On the topic of preorders, for our International customers, could you please respond with what country you are from? We need to compile of list of shipping costs for Longclaw to various International destinations and I’ll make the countries of fans that post here a priority so that those ones are done when we first start taking preorders.

In Non-Longclaw news, the Needle concept art is nearing completion.

Many people have been asking for an update on Longclaw progress, so here we go.

Things have taken much longer than we initially wanted. The blade is ready to be manufactured, prototypes are done, tooling is setup, but now we cannot quite get the finish we want. With Longclaw we are establishing the look of all the Valyrian Steel products we are going to be producing, so it is important we get it right, the good news is though that once we do get it right, we will not experience this same delay with any of the other swords. Hopefully we’re able to nail down the right finish by the end of the month, then mass production can start with delivery ending up around May.

We’ve also changed the plaque based on feedback. The design mostly the same but after discussion with GRRM we have tweaked the front leg to be a more realistic angle.

The second sword we will be producing is Needle and we’ve already started the design process on it. Needle should also be simpler to produce and might also end up coming out in 2008. We’re also considering doing Needle in high carbon steel. It may not be possible, but considering the blade is small and needs no special finishing we think it is worth a shot.

The third sword will likely be Ice, unless A Dance with Dragons comes out and features a new sword we want to make instead.

This is the pommel for Longclaw. In the books it is described as carved stone, but it isn’t feasible to mass produce a stone carving, and a cast stone-like product (aka resin) just wouldn’t be that durable. So the pommel will be cast metal.

We went through numerous design revisions with GRRM on this as well. There were versions with the wolf’s mouth open, the ears back, looking up full in profile, looking up just in relief, and the looking forward version you see here. In the end GRRM chose this design with the wolf looking forward, mouth closed, and ears up. So the way it will be displayed on the plaque is with the wolf’s head looking out towards you.

In manufacturing news the 3D computer models of the handle parts are nearing completion and the COAs have arrived from the printer. So this week we will be sending all those COAs to GRRM for signing. Hopefully signing his name so many times doesn’t interfere with his writing or typing ability for A Dance with Dragons.

With this line of swords our plan is to show the crest & words of the house the sword belongs to on the wall plaque that will ultimately hold the sword. We had a little bit of a problem with Longclaw though because it is only newly in Jon’s possession & Jon doesn’t, technically, have a house.

We thought of doing the Stark design anyways, we thought of doing the Mormont crest, we thought of maybe using some sort of Night’s Watch symbolism (but they only use black officially, and crow is a slang term). Ultimately the appropriate plaque to use would be one that reflects the sword’s destiny, and only one person knows what that is.

Would Jon ever be a Stark again? I don’t know, but George R.R. Martin told us to use the Stark colors in reverse as that is what bastards in Westeros often do. Also, GRRM did a reading from A Dance with Dragons which you can listen to here which seems to allude to Jon perhaps becoming legitimate. Will Jon remain in the Watch? Will he join with Stannis as Lord of Winterfell and a Stark in name? I guess we’ll find out in ADWD.

For our next sword, Needle, we will face an equal challenge. What type of symbol should Arya have? Stark? Faceless Man? Something else? We’ll see.

Here is a glimpse of the concept art for Longclaw’s blade. This texture is going to be achieved with an etch and glaze wash combination. We went through around 16 different styles of blade coloring & texturing with George R.R. Martin before he picked this style for Longclaw. It is very dark, almost black, with jagged lightning bolt-like streaks. I know many people envision modern damascus steel when they think of Valyrian, but GRRM wanted something significantly darker.

Interesting though, in the design revision process he mentioned that while he liked this style for Longclaw, other blades might have different texture patterns. So apparently different Valyrian steel blades can exhibit different textures.

We’ve finalized the techical drawings for the blade, from crossguard to tip it will be around 39 3/4 inches, and at the crossguard the blade measures almost 2 3/4 inches wide.

Manufacturing tooling should begin in June or July, and we expect a prototype to be ready in September or October. Assuming GRRM has no problems with the protoype we’ll start taking preorders at that point for delivery in early 2008.

More concept art shall be released at a later date.