Yesterday I took a trip with Megarom Games out of Johannesburg all the way into Lanseria into a private game lodge where Neels van den Berg’s forge is found. Hidden away in the mountains, nestled by trees, it was almost like I was playing an RPG on a quest to find that one and only blacksmith that can make that one-of-a-kind blade. Black Dragon Forge is home to Neels van den Berg, one of SA’s best smiths and he was tasked as creating a replica of the Spear of Leonidas from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.
Related: Win a One-of-a-Kind Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Spear of Leonidas
Watch Neels in action as we show off the blade in a video below;
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I have been following his work on Instagram for some time now and seeing the progress on a picture and seeing the spear he crafted in real life were two very different things. Neels worked on crafting this spear for over five weeks. It was one of the most challenging things he has ever done and according to Neels, he often laid in bed awake at night thinking about it.
The proof is in the pudding as the spear is a masterpiece. You know those weapons that take all game to grind for as you gather materials, fight epic bosses for that one drop of blood and search high and low for that legendary piece of leather? Well, when you take it all back to the blacksmith he creates something like this Spear of Leonidas. I could not believe that this piece of art was actually made from scratch.
The spear is made up of genuine leather, carbon steel, bronze and stainless steel and materials carefully moulded and placed with the utmost attention to detail bring the weapon to life. Holding it, it weighs quite a few and you can feel that the metals used to create the blade are of the highest quality. One of my favourite parts of the spear is no doubt the leather work which was made and slid up the shaft of the spear. The hand grip also has these stunning diamond-shaped leather patches with golden studs. The stitching gives it a truly Greek feel and with the bronze decorations perfectly places around it, the blade looks like something you would find somewhere in a museum under lock and key.
The blade and hilt have a very similar design and if anything looks very Elven to me. Yes, I play too much Elder Scrolls Online. Neels says that it would be completely possible to sharpen the blade to make it deadly but he does not want to cause any problems. The two parts of the blade sticking out already stabbed me a few times while just handling the spear, I could not imagine the damage a sharper blade would cause.
Neels gave us a tour of his forge and even lit one up and started banging away at a piece of steel to show us how the entire process works. It is like hot play dough, according to him. The only issue is that it cools down within 12 seconds so you need to hammer and mould it as fast and carefully as possible. Neels showed us how to get the basic shape for a knife which took him around 20 minutes to obtain. I cannot imagine how tedious the Spear of Leonidas was when he had to get that blade perfectly symmetrical. He is a true artist.
Don’t forget that can win this spear and guys, you want it. The more I held it in my hands, the more I wanted to take it home with me. It is a one-of-a-kind creation made from the ground up and any gamer would appreciate this master-crafted creation. Make sure you enter to stand a chance of winning this epic blade by visiting spearofleonidas.co.za
