Hello I’m Barbara Wechter, creator and mastermind behind Wechter Arms. My skills in weapon crafting originated with my education at the Maryland Institute College Art where I majored in Interdisciplinary Sculpture. While there I learned all sorts of cool skills like welding, metal casting, woodworking, and mold making. Upon graduating I joined the American Bladesmith Society and was fortunate enough to be apprenticed by a local smith in Connecticut and added blacksmithing and leatherwork to my repertoire. I moved to Massachusetts and started working with the Viking Combat Group named Hurstwic, which at that time was operating out of the Higgins Armory Museum. We had several good options for training with sword type weapons but the only training axes we had were old, made out of wood, and falling apart. I was struck with inspiration and used my skills to create the first of a long line of training axes. I have been making improvements with each axe over the years and I now have a product that I am quite proud of. I hope you will enjoy training with them as much as we do at Hurstwic.