Angus Trim: Crafting Performance

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The sword community has long sung the praises of Angus Trim, and we were thrilled to get the chance to speak with the notable machinist – turned artisan sword maker – based in the Pacific Northwest.

With a background in CNC machining and aeronautics, Trim has been able to explore the performance of his swords to a degree few others have achieved. Collaborating with HEMA practitioners in the Pacific Northwest, his designs have evolved based on their performance properties. Form follows function in a one-of-a-kind beauty. His swords are best described as modern interpretations of the finest medieval swords.

The thoughtful design is brought to life by using high quality materials; AISI 5160 treated steel blades, his guards and pommels are made from mild steel, and American Walnut produces his grips. And while his namesake line is sought after by those able to afford American-made labor and materials, items he has designed are available in other lines; notably select A.P.O.C & Kingston Arms designs.

Gus’s workshop (heartbreakingly light on inventory)

Where it Started

At first glance, swords and planes may seem to be at the opposite ends of history. When moving from plane engineering and manufacturing into the craft of swords, Trim was able to pull from years of precision and perfection. “You’d be surprised how similar in some ways a sword blade is to an aircraft wing,” says Trim. “A sword blade is smaller and likely simpler, but I pursue the same kind of precision while it’s being machined.”

Trim’s interest in swords first began when he combined a growing interest in Tai Chi with an earlier movie and tv-inspired fascination. This led to a small scale manufacturing, a venture with Tinker Pearce, and sought after for his reviews for Swordforum International.

But all along the way he kept sharing his designs and blades with the martial artists, who stopped practice when Trim pulled up with prototypes in his trunk. “Gus is a lot of fun because he is very open to ideas. If you want to see a handle in a certain way, or a certain type of pommel, or sword for the martial arts that we do, he’ll create one for you,” said Aidan Blake, HEMA Practitioner with Lonin League. For Trim, it’s more than aesthetic – it’s about the tactile experience of handling his swords and something he prioritizes in all of his designs. For more from the experience of those that have worked directly with Gus to inform his designs, go to our video.

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Imagine Angus Trim pulling up with a trunk load of rifle cases that hold a few treats. That’s Lonin League’s experience practicing HEMA (almost) next door to Gus’s workshop in the Pacific Northwest

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KOA: Take me to the beginning. Where did you start your sword career?

Angus Trim: I started out, really, as a reviewer for Swordforum International while it was still Highlander Sword Shopper Guide. The exposure from that introduced me to Tinker, and things rolled along to the point that we started an ill-fated venture named Tinker Swords. I didn’t survive long. But after that, I tried the small-scale production gig and it’s been extremely fulfilling ever since.

KOA: Swords and planes seem to be at the opposite extremes of history. Why did you move from engineering and manufacturing airplanes to making swords? What sparked your interest? How did you make the transition?

AT: Oddly enough, because I’m a CNC machinist, I approach making swords in a similar fashion as I approached making aircraft parts. You’d be surprised how similar in some ways a sword blade is to an aircraft wing. Yes, they’re quite different in aesthetics and function, but I plot points in a similar fashion. A sword blade is smaller and likely simpler, but I pursue the same kind of precision while it’s being machined. I like to think my thinking in that area has helped translate into a really precise design for my swords and blades.

KOA: When you’re drawing from two big frames of reference, it must be fascinating to compare your role in that field versus your role as an artisan. How would you describe yourself: as a craftsman doing your trade or as a bladesmith perfecting your art?

AT: As a craftsman, I suspect my aircraft background shows. Today, you can also factor in that I’m a crabby old man, so the workflow can be a little more to my needs. I’m never really satisfied, as I tend to improve and refine designs as time goes on. In that sense I guess my art and my craft are linked, they can’t exist without each other.

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KOA: Tell us about your design process? Where do you source inspiration? How is your approach different when designing and crafting blades?

AT: My sources of inspiration have evolved over the years. It’s more than just aesthetic, it’s being tactile oriented; handling is a big attribute that I hope to excel at with every design.

Handling-wise, my first inspirations were three antique jian in the late ‘90s. Aesthetically today, it’s historical antiques and the various typologies that these weapons are classified as.

Which makes sense with these time-tested weapons whose forms and handling as we know them are a direct result of trial and error in battle. It doesn’t get more inspiring than that kind of practical need for blades and weapons like the ones that originally captured my imagination.

My design work starts with identifying what I want with the finished product– the feel, the function, and the historical realism. Then I work out dimensions, after which I plot points. When I plan on using a certain guard, that will be in perfect proportion to the blade. The pommel is the last thing, as I will usually try several pommels on the blade to see which one helps the handling the most and is most suited to the particular attributes of the weapon.

KOA: What are the most pivotal projects you’ve worked on that launched – and what are you working on now?

AT: I’m not really sure I’ve had any pivotal designs per se. What I have had is a constant learning process and a refinement process. As I make something new, I invariably learn something new. And always learn yet again, the more you think you know, the more you have to learn.

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Here are Gus’s more extensive take on his learning process (shared with permission from his Facebook page):

My Thoughts on Sword Design

When a bunch younger, in the early 00’s, I occasionally would discuss what I saw as the seven dimensions of “the sword”, and sword design. Since the last two, the sixth and seventh, are a bit arcane, I would lose people. So I reached a point of only discussing the five {or four if you will, as things really start with the two dimensional view}.

Now, sword design, like anything else, is subjective. I have a view of reality, and see the world a bit differently than most other folks. This is reflected in how I design swords. For one thing, I don’t see a two dimensional drawing as a design. That’s just a nice image. A design is at least three dimensional. But, even language today is subjective, and how people use the word “design” as far as sword images go, isn’t worth fighting over. Like the rest of this post, it’s my view on things.

The second dimension is a flat view. What you see in a photo or an illustration. It’s an important aspect of a sword and sword design, but leaves a lot unsaid.

The third dimension adds depth. Here you get the thicknesses, a better view and take on the tapers and a better idea of the fittings are actually like.

You could look at the fourth dimension as a furthering of the third. But I separate it due to the subtleties and complexities this adds. This takes into account the subtleties and complexities of the blade geometry, the same on guard and pommel geometry, the inner volume of the pommel, as in empty space inside. It takes into account things like grip shape, and covering, and the grip material. Add this up, and you also have the distribution of mass. Things like harmonic balance.

The fifth dimension has to do with the handling of the sword, interaction with operator of said sword, and how it reacts when coming into operational contact with various targets. You can’t learn this in a museum. The sword has to be used in a drill, cut with, thrust with. What I’m looking for is tracking in both cut and thrust attacks, how the sword acts as the operator goes through the recovery. And how the sword reacts to the strike of a target. Is there excessive snake dance? Is there excessive shock back into the hilt?

The sixth dimension has to do with the impression the sword leaves on a person. This is where subjectivity really becomes a factor the biggest factor. Not all swords are going to be appreciated by a person, nor is a person going to appreciate all swords. There’s more to it than the following, but what I look for is the static {the visual and/ or how a person reacts to a sword when viewing in hand}, in motion, and during the act of cutting.

The real masters of swordmaking really have mastered the sixth. Their creations impact a large part of those that get to experience what they make, visually, in hand, in motion, and cutting {more than one of these}. In my limited experience, Vince Evans, Kevin Cashen, and Howard Clark have an extremely good handle on these.

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KOA: Do you have a personal collection, and what is in it? What did you start your collection with and has your interest evolved?

AT: At the moment, my collection consists of swords that other people either don’t want or wouldn’t sell. For instance, I finished a XIX.2 for a customer who changed his mind at the last minute and bought something else from me. I took the sword to five events over two years, and people liked it. But when a buyer decided which sword to buy, the XIX.2 always came in second.

Thus, it’s currently the oldest sword in my collection. I had a nice Hungarian Sabre, I’d made for myself. Someone that saw it loved it more than I did, and so it changed ownership. So, currently, I have five orphans in my collection.

I do occasionally make a sword for myself, but something always happens, and it changes hands. I like to have a reason to keep something for myself, and if someone else wants it more, then it was meant to be theirs. I’m sure my orphan collection will grow or shrink over time but for now, it remains as such.

A collection of Angus Trim Medieval swords

Another entry from Gus shows the precision applied to the design process:

August 13, 2021: Design of XII.5 with a bit on Parabolic Arcs

I made very few swords from 2010 into 2015. At one point I was dead broke, and thought I was done making swords because I didn’t have the capital to fix the mill, buy material, cutting tools, abrasives etc. Didn’t feel like quitting, but I had nothing to make the restart happen.

So, I did some deep thought on lessons learned, and what they might have meant. How to apply them if I somehow made the resources to get started again.

One of the things learned was how common subtle parabolic arcs are on the profile of a blade on the foible. It had been pointed out to me, I’d missed for years, even though it was right in front of my face every time I opened one of my resource books. {Mike Harris pointed it to me}.

It was so common, that looking through the XII’s in Oakeshott’s “Records of the Medieval Sword” had a curve from approximately 1/3 the distance from where the tip starts towards the cross. I’d made a couple swords before running out of everything with the subtly curving foibles, but didn’t think I really “had it”. I guess what I’m getting at here, it appeared often enough I didn’t think it was a coincidence or accident, nor was it a function of sharpening an often used sword. I think it was built in, and had a functional purpose.

I decided to come as close to isolating that feature as you can with a complex thing like a sword blade. In order to do that, it had to be simple. So, a single hand sword, of moderate length, width and mass. I decided a XII, which when executed became the XII.5

I decided on some simple dimensions. 31.5 inch blade length and 1.8 inch width, with a thickness at the base of .18 inch. The tip length would be .82 inches and it would be 1.5 inches long {I define the tip as where it “curves to the point”. The thickness there would be about .09 inch.

Having measured and interpreted {just my interpretation} of these arcs as running roughly 1/3 the length, I decided to start the arc at 11.5 inches from the point {the point being 0}. Since I had become kinda convinced that the arc of the profile and the distal taper worked together I took into account. Both profile and distal taper would be linear from the cross to the starting point of the arc. From there to where the tip starts, the arc would dictate the distal taper. Fuller would start at 9.5 inches, and would full depth at 11.5 inches.

At the point the arc started, the width of the blade was 1.3 inches and thickness .135 inch. Neither profile or distal would be linear from the beginning of subtle arc to the tip.

Once everything was established, a bit of programming magic, grinding after heat treat, and assembly at the end, I had a sword. One I kinda liked.

I hate to admit this, but most of the XII’s I had made previously seemed to missing something. This one worked well and became one of the platforms I learned a lot more from.

You see, when making swords, and finding a solution to something, it seems that always questions emerge from it.

See our current selection of Angus Trim, A.P.O.C tactical, and Kingston Arms blades here. As always, limited quantities of the namesake models.

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Angus Trim: Crafting Performance

The sword community has long sung the praises of Angus Trim, and we were thrilled to get the chance to speak with the notable machinist – turned artisan sword maker – based in the Pacific Northwest.

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