Cold Forge Lance of Longinus From Evangelion

I love Neon Genesis Evangelion! I saw that Tokyo has a full size replica of the Lance of Longinus and even saw a video of the blacksmiths that forged it. It blew me away and I immediately wanted one. I am by no means a blacksmith but have enough skills to get to the point where I am content and this is how I made my own.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

I got one of those steel wire hanger that are made for peg boards from a reclaim shop for 25 cents.

tools:

anvil or other hard striking surface (I move from the cast iron mini anvil to a piece of mild steel)

hammer

vise

vise grips

dremel or some cut off tool

sand paper

safety:

eye protection

hearing protection (esp. important because of the constant striking of metal on metal action)

Step 2: Pound the Metal

The first thing to do is to straighten out the bits that are bent for the peg board. Once you have that done you can start pounding out the tips. As in the words of the late and great Bob Ross, "Beat the devil out of it!" I like to work down to a little less that half way down since the metal tips will stretch out. Every once in a while you may need to take the edges and pound them flat again like you see in picture four. I also liked how the imperfections of the hammer blows made a texture on the metal. I thought it looked more rustic and gave the sense of knowing it was homemade.

Step 3: Get It Ready for Twisting

Strike the edge of the rounded end over and over while working the prongs back to keep the whole thing on the same plane. From time to time the prongs would tend to twist out of whack. You want the loop to be as close as you can, as seen in picture three.

Step 4: Twist the Handle (but Be Careful!!)

I made the mistake of putting the flat prong end in the vise with too much room away from the butt of what will be the round twisted handle. The metal was weak in one spot on the flat pounded bit and the twisting action in the vise broke off the flat prong. Therefore, make sure you butt it up all the way to where the flat part meets the round part of the steel.

Then, put the vise grips on the tip of the rounded edge and use that elbow grease to start the twisting of the handle.

Step 5: Finish and Straighten the Twisted Handle

Twist until you are satisfied. Once out of the vise you may need to straighten the handle like you see in the pics.

After it is back to being straight, I started hammering the handle to give a more fluid flatter twist. I also wanted the twisted tip to be as pointy as I could get it because that is what the lance in the show does.

Step 6: Getting That Signature Look

I put the handle back in the vise to begin untwisting around the prongs to get that look from the Lance. This will probably be the most difficult and time consuming step.

I watched quite a few blacksmithing videos online to see how they twisted/untwisted iron for their various products to get an idea as to how to proceed. I positioned the vise grips on the butted up part where round meets flat and connected and locked the vise grips to both parts. Don't try untwisting just one prong piece at a time. The untwisting will start to occur and I wanted one prong on either side of the plane where the twisted handle is. This may not make sense so please refer to the second to last picture to see what I mean. One flat prong is, in gross exaggeration, in a L shape and the other is like a mirror image.

Now I needed to take my hammer and elongate the top twisted bit to complete that signature look. I found that the flat parts wanted to twist with the handle again and need to pound them back in their proper place. I was satisfied that I had the twist I was looking for, as seen the last pic.

Give your lance a once over to fine tune any part of the prongs, the twist or the handle.

Step 7: The Finished Product

I finished it up by pounding down the rounded handle to make it even more flat and with a pointier edge. I then sanded it down to make it nice and shiny. After that, I used the dremel to round out the prongs square like tips to make it more lance like.

I would like to make it complete by sand blasting and powder coating it to make it crimson red like in the program!

I like the finished product and if you have the tools on hand, the cost is minimal. I did this from start to finish in an afternoon (two if count the first one snapping in the vise). If you have a forge to heat the metal that would make things go a lot faster. I did notice that from most of the videos I watched, the smiths preferred twisting the metal cold. I am not sure why this is exactly. If someone knows please leave a comment. Or comment with suggestions, something to add or what I could've done to make it even more authentic.

If you like the show and have the means I highly suggest making one for yourself. It is very rewarding except that when your friends who also watch want you to make one for them and then you get orders for like 7 more lances!