Kit Rae swords seem to have dropped out of nightmares into the real world. If you’ve played video games you may have picked up the virtual version of a Kit Rae sword in a loot drop, since he designed some of the best game weapons. If you’re a fan of stories like Blade, The Chronicles of Riddick, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer you’ve seen his work in prop weapon form. Every Kit Rae sword has a story behind it, even if Kit Rae has to write it himself.
Born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada in 1966, Kit Rae started his artistic career as a child sketching with charcoal. Fantasy artists like Boris Vallejo and and science fiction writers like Frank Herbert influenced his work, but J.R.R. Tolkien may have had the most effect. Kit Rae designed fantasy blades for United Cutlery for fifteen years, and in his Swords of the Ancients series for United, each weapon accompanies a chapter in the fantasy history Kit Rae authored. The “Swords of the Ancients” story describes a 10,000 year history of mankind’s struggle against the powers of The Ancient Ones. Kit Rae also designs practical weapons and commercial art, working for companies as mainstream as Harley-Davidson and Colt. A practical knife and camp ax combo designed for Colt earned Kit Rae an award from Blade Magazine in 1996.
Kit Rae’s most famous work, the Swords of the Ancients series, began as a ten-sword collection produced for United Cutlery in 1997. The original swords are now valuable collector’s items. Kit Rae swords are sculpted from stainless steel by the stock removal method, not hot forging. His fantasy weapons come in several grades, including the highest quality autographed limited edition runs. Swords in the fantasy weapons series included autographed art prints.
Current offerings include Gold Edition swords plated with 24K gold and Damascus Edition swords with blades of modern layered Damascus steel. Kit Rae’s most recent functional knives, the BlackJet series, were designed for throwing. BlackJets come in three different knife patterns and one style of throwing axe.
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