Jeweller spends over 700 hours recreating Warcraft's most legendary blade in gold and silver
A 'wow' is appropriate.
This isn't scientific but, in my experience of Warcraft, the most beloved era and character is what WoW Classic is about to go into: Wrath of the Lich King. The Lich King being of course Arthas, once crown prince of Lordearon and knight of the silver hand, who would in an effort to save his people take up the mournblade Frostmourne, and in so doing damn himself.
Frostmourne is, as weapons go, as metal as it gets. It has the power to shatter and imprison the souls of its victims, turning the living into undead servants of the Lich King. Arthas slew kings and destroyed nations with Frostmourne, and to me at least it is WoW's most legendary blade and a key part of the world's history.
Febo is a professional jeweller with over ten years' experience, and a couple of years ago opened his own company and now has his own workshop. I'm guessing in his previous job the boss wasn't down with using the company workshop to crack out Warcraft weapons. Febo started playing Warcraft games when he was 12 and, basically, his two passions are jewellery and fantasy games: you can see where this is going.
He chose Frostmourne as his first high-end project because "I played the game for a very long time", which I think many of us will relate to. "Because Frostmourne has been in the lore since 2004 in different games and expansions I had to choose which design I would use as a reference," says Febo. "I used the design from Warcraft Reforged, and I know everyone hates Reforged, but to me that's still the most pleasing version of Frostmourne and it's definitely got the most details: and I like details!"
As you can see in the video below, being a professional jeweller means you are an absolute badass who warps and weaves precious metals with incredible heat. This is one of those 'process' videos that's kind of mesmerising to watch, mainly because of the combination of Febo's skillset and seeing all the kit jewellers use: plus the way all these hundreds of individual components are planned out, executed perfectly, and ultimately combined into something gorgeous.
There's also a funny appeal here, which is that my first reaction was "oh it's not a full-sized sword, it's small." Then the video became fascinating because the recreation is so small, and the level of detail that Febo is going into on these elements is wild.
As fan projects go, the only thing you can say is a well-deserved 'wow'. This is obviously also a professional project made with enormous skill, and thus sadly not something you'll be seeing for sale anytime soon. Needless to say, of course, Febo has been asked. "The piece was not made for sale, but it would be very very expensive!"