And visitors to the Royal Armouries this month will get to meet the unsung hero of The Lord of the Rings.
It was master swordsmith Peter Lyon who led the weapons-making team from the Oscar-winning Weta workshop in New Zealand.
His iconic weapons are currently on display at the Armouries in the exhibition Arms and Armour from the Movies: The Wonderful World of Weta.
Peter has been invited over from Wellington to give talks and tours about the weapons used in the Rings trilogy and Narnia movies. And for him it is a privilege to be at the Armouries.
"It's tremendously exciting for me," he said. "Living half way across the world, I have had to study the weapons of Europe second-hand from books and articles.
"Now I can handle the real weapons here, feel what they are like and learn how close to the originals I got with my swords.
"I got a lot of information from books published by the Armouries which is one of the major centres for research."
Peter, 44, worked with computers while playing the medieval warrior in his spare time.
"I was making swords and re-enacting medieval combat and jousting when I met Richard Taylor, the founder of Weta, in 1994.
"He said he would keep me in mind and four years later he came to me with the Lord of the Rings project. I was given designs to work from and tweaked them so they became practical weapons.
"I had to turn a two-dimensional design into a three-dimensional weapon and make sure it was not too heavy and clunky and get the balance right. I had to keep in mind an actor's comfort.
"When I saw the Rings films I was amazed that they looked even better on screen than when I made them. It sounds twee but I never get tired of watching the trilogy. It has so many layers of history."
His own favourite weapon is Anduril, the broken sword which was re-forged and used by hero Aragorn.
Peter and his wife Helen will be touring museums in Britain and sight-seeing over the next three weeks and then he goes back home to prepare to work on The Hobbit, the sequel to the Rings.
Bob Woosnam-Savage, a senior curator at the Armouries, said: "I am sure Peter's visit will have a major influence on his work."
l Peter will give talks about the movie weapons and then tour the exhibition with visitors today and tomorrow, September 13-14 and September 20-21, all between 12 and 1pm.