Sword collecting lands Vancouver ‘tinkerer’ on History Channel

As legend tells it, King Arthur pulled one of his famed swords out of stone and received another from the Lady of the Lake.

Similarly, Ken Tucker’s search for swords has led the Vancouver resident on a few journeys of his own, from the Goodwill on Northeast Fourth Plain Road to flea markets far and wide to the Goodwill off Mill Plain Boulevard.

When he was growing up, Tucker’s mother said a distant ancestor was a knight in King Arthur’s Court. While he has no idea if that’s true, he took it as gospel and has been interested in swords ever since.

“She doomed me to this hobby,” he said.

He likes to say that his job as a phlebotomist makes him a “specialist with a very, very small sword.”

Tucker has been collecting swords since he was a preteen, and a few years ago he decided to try his hand at making his own. He bought a used blade for $10 and some other materials for about $25.

“I’m a tinkerer,” said Tucker, 31. “It’s really fun to repurpose things.”

He sharpened the blade, removing about 1 pound of steel, and used a napkin holder with roses on it from the Salvation Army as the rain guard. Tucker put everything together, and Thorn was born, weighing about 2.5 pounds.

The sword was named for his wife, Elizabeth Tucker, whose middle name is Rose.

“She’s my Rose, and I defend her with my Thorn,” Ken Tucker said, adding that he can be a bit poetic at times.

“We watch a lot of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” Elizabeth Tucker, 31, said.

Tucker, and Thorn, recently made their national debuts when he competed on the History Channel’s “Forged in Fire: Knife or Death,” a competition show where sword and knife enthusiasts run obstacles while using their blade to cut through a variety of objects, such as ice blocks, water jugs and raw meat.

Even though Tucker didn’t finish first in his episode or qualify to come back later in the season, he was pleased with his performance on the show — and that Thorn held up. Elizabeth Tucker said the two went over to her parents’ house to watch the episode together, and it was cool to see him on TV, although a bit weird because of how intense he looked.

“He’s such a teddy bear,” she said. “To see him ready to chop someone’s head off was a little weird. He’s my big fuzz ball.”

She said her husband loves spending time cuddling with their two dogs, La Princessa Francesca Alejandra de Banana and Miss Phoebe Jean Von Wheedlestein.

Elizabeth Tucker likes going with her husband to flea markets and thrift stores to look for items. At a Goodwill, she noticed a plate featuring a sun with a smiling face on it and pointed out that it would make a good buckler, or small shield. She has learned quite a bit about weapons, and a few years back, she was in the break room at work eating lunch while “Jeopardy” was on the television. Her coworkers were impressed, if also a bit confused, after she knew all the answers in a “medieval fencing” category.

She also likes working with her hands, and spends her free time painting and doing needlepoint. The two enjoy playing video games and watching anime, something that she said has grown in popularity but something she felt like an outcast for liking while growing up in Vancouver.

“That’s why you had to go online to find someone with mutual interests,” she said.

The two met online in a “Star Wars” forum when they were 17. Elizabeth Tucker joined to impress a different boy she liked who was a big “Star Wars” fan. She didn’t care for it, and still doesn’t too much. While there, she met Ken Tucker, and the two started talking. She completely forgot about the other guy.

“I don’t even remember his name now,” she said.

They talked on Myspace for about six months and wanted to meet, but there was a problem. Elizabeth Tucker was in Vancouver and Ken Tucker lived in Charleston, W.Va. Their two mothers talked on the phone and agreed to let Ken Tucker fly out to visit. Shortly after, he moved to the area, and they’ve been together ever since.

In addition to thrifting to find items, Elizabeth Tucker also has some fun with her husband’s hobby by naming some of his swords, although he named one longer sword hanging on the wall in their apartment.

“We were going to the NW’s Largest Garage Sale about two years ago, and she didn’t want me to get any more swords,” Ken Tucker said. “But I saw this one, and it was just $40 and it was in good shape. I begged and pleaded, and eventually bought it. I named it ‘Grounds for Divorce.’ ”

Elizabeth Tucker said she was fine with it because of the low price of the sword. While Ken Tucker does buy some of his weapons, he prefers shopping around to find items to make them. He previously used a candlestick as the holder of a sword.

“I don’t like to have stock things,” he said. “I want things to stand out.”

While Tucker previously had a workshop at his in-laws’ house, he also does some of his work on the deck of their ground-floor Vancouver apartment. The deck looks out at the apartment complex pool and community center, so people using treadmills can jog while staring out at Tucker working on his blades. He said people like to watch or ask him what he’s doing. On a recent visit, he was working to sharpen a dagger from a piece of steel that broke off a sword.

“When I do this, I can put my own flavor on it,” he said. “Everyone saw a big ball of rust. We saw possibility.”