Armoured Pencil Box

You may recall that a year ago I dressed up my Japanese metal pencil box as a Mac iBox. But it started to get cruddy looking. It was time for a facelift.

So I asked my friends Tony Swatton and Jacques Louis David of Sword and Stone Armoury to help out. They make swords, weapons, and armour for movies like Blade, Zorro, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

We decided to give it an ancient Dinotopian vibe. In a makeshift workshop in the catacombs of the Mission Inn in Riverside, California, (above, right) they cut out a dinosaur footprint shape from brass. They hammered it into shape and riveted it to the lid. A little bleach helped oxidize the brass and some sandpaper and patina paint did the rest of the job.

Now I can take my sketch kit into the Rainy Basin and not have to worry about a Carnotaurus biting through it.


Here's a video to show what it's like in Tony's shop.

Sizzle reel for a reality show that Tony proposed a while back, though the show might take another form.
Sword and Stone Armoury website
Previously: The new Mac iBox