Remembering Greg Bentson

Our hearts are heavy at Arms & Armor as this week as we learned our long time friend, coworker, and amazing artist Greg Bentson has passed away. He had been battling cancer. Greg was part of A&A for over 36 years. He started by doing some freelance sculpting for us and became one of our most endearing coworkers who's talents were unmatched. He was able to take just about any medium and turn it into an amazing sculpture wether small or large. His commitment to "getting it right" always took precedence and his dry wit was always to hand. 

Were his mastery was most apparent was his ability to take a few bits of steel, some intense heat and sculpt amazing pieces of replica medieval and renaissance metal work. He became our chief hilt builder for rapiers and custom items and worked with our team to create some truly amazing pieces that not only looked like the originals but had the heart and soul of these pieces.

His ability to see the right detail and know the way to make the replica live was amazing. He spent many hours focused on a piece to realize it was not symmetry and perfection that gave the item its life but the way all the elements flowed together and fit as a whole. 

Even as his health deteriorated Greg wanted to keep working and did an amazing job teaching his technique and insight to our newer craftsmen. 

Greg sorting out a bilbo hilt!

Greg helping a young visitor try some metal working.

Crafting a hilt!

Greg, Mark and Ian

Greg and Craig

Greg and Nathan making a hilt.

Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography.  He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985.