Blacksmith to the Stars
18th August 2013
Tony Swatton is the most famous blacksmith in Los Angeles. But he’s not forging horseshoes. Rather, Swatton has banged out a place in Tinseltown as the go-to guy when a big-budget movie or hit TV show needs custom metalwork. The swords in Pirates of the Caribbean? Those creepy-cool murder weapons from CSI and Criminal Minds? The Infinity Gauntlet from Thor? All were Swatton creations.
The 49-year-old got started in heavy metal at the tender age of 17. “I saw a guy making armor at a Renaissance fair,” Swatton recalls. “I watched him work for about two hours, went home, replicated some equipment, shaped a section of railroad track into an anvil, and made a helmet. I went back to the same fair two weeks later and showed [it to] him. He thought it was one of his own.”
At least it wasn’t a freon tank….