Weapons of the Crown Jewels

What do you think of when I say Excalibur? What about Sting? Heron marked sword? There aren't many fantasy stories that don't have some sort of warrior, either as the hero or a sidekick, or one of the bad guys, and quite often their weapon - often a sword - is an important part of their identity; King Arthur wielded Excalibur, Bilbo Baggins had Sting, and Rand carried a heron-marked sword.

Crown Jewels is no different. I'm only a third of the way through the first draft, but two blades are already important parts of the story. The first is Onyx's sword while the second is Jasper's knife. I'm a visual thinker so both the sword and the knife are based on pieces in my collection; the inspiration for Onyx's sword is a messer made by Cold Steel, and Jasper's blade is a boning knife from Syokami. Yes, one's German and the other's Japanese, but the boning knife is such a universal design that if fits right in with a European sword.

Besides, it's fantasy; mixing and matching cultures is perfectly acceptable.