Ep48: Forging swords and knives with video game CEO Trent Oster
Power hammers, anvils, and belt grinders: Join us as we explore the hobby of video game CEO Trent Oster and nerd out about blacksmithing, knives, and Damascus steel.
From ancient times to today, gods and humans have hammered red-hot metal into shapes of weapons and crafts of beauty. In Ancient Greek mythology, Hephaestus and in fantasy, beings such as Sauron forge the ultimate weapons in the insane heat at the heart of volcanoes. Without human blacksmiths, who were the technologists of their day, we would not have the tooling and the world-building that have brought us to today. However, in our present day we take machined metalworking for granted. We don’t think twice about stainless steel knives in our kitchens. What were once luxury goods can now be bought for pennies in thrift stores.
But the art of true blacksmithing survives and is even experiencing a renaissance. I am reminded of this every year when Helsinki plays host to the world’s largest community produced roleplaying convention, ROPECON. Last year, a local blacksmith had his beautiful knives available, and I picked up a stunning, functional blade that has been my go-to cooking knife all year.
Watching a traditional blacksmith work is mesmerizing. The process is anything but simple: it is immensely physical. Heated metal is pounded, tweaked, and otherwise worked with any number of torturous-looking implements to produce something both practical and beautiful.
When I was watching a blacksmith work in his forge, it reminded me that I have a friend and former colleague whose hobby is this most ancient and practical of arts. If you know video games, then you certainly know some of the titles that he has worked on and helmed.
I am talking about none other than Trent Oster. Trent and I worked together at BioWare, where he was a founding member, as well as Project Director and Producer when I was helping with Neverwinter Nights. These days, he is the CEO of Beamdog. Aside from its own intellectual property such as Mythforce, Beamdog has been instrumental in bringing Dungeons & Dragons games such as Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, and even Neverwinter Nights back as enhanced editions that run on modern computers.
But today, Trent and I will not be talking about video games. Many of us in the tech industry have hobbies which we take to extremes of all kinds. Mine include writing and photography, but Trent’s is on a scale of power hammers, steel, and red-hot chemistry. This is a dense discussion on smithing, knifemaking, and the wonders of metallurgy.
I’ve added pictures of the knives he has produced that we talk about. I’ve also included a video of Trent’s power hammer, the machine that he affectionately calls “Thumpy”.
Watch “Thumpy” the power hammer at work in Trent’s shop