Sir Terry Pratchett, who died today aged 66, had a fondness for history and heraldry that extended beyond his books.

In 2010 he was granted his own coat of arms (below) and, later in the year, he decided that if he was to be a knight he also needed a proper sword.

So Sir Terry gathered deposits of iron he found in a field near his home in Wiltshire and smelted it himself in the grounds.

"Most of my life I've been producing stuff which is intangible and so it's amazing the achievement you feel when you have made something which is really real," he said of the sword.

Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes Show all 13 1 /13 Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out” –The Light Fantastic Pratchett photographed in 1990 Corbis Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "We Pratchetts are a feisty bunch" Pratchett with his daughter Rhianna at home in 2009. Rhianna is now a writer in her own right and has written the storylines to video games such as Tomb Raider and Overlord Rex Features Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases - one was Alzheimer's, and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer's" Terry Pratchett delivers a petition on behalf of the Alzheimer's Research Trust calling for an increase in government funding for dementia research in 2008 Getty Images Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "Imagination, not intelligence, made us human" Terry Pratchett with his double-row of six computer screens in 2009 George Wright Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story” Pratchett was awarded an OBE in 1998 PA Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove” - The Truth Terry Pratchett launches his 25th novel of the 'Discworld' series, 'The Truth' in 2000 Corbis Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you” In 2007, the year he announced he had Alzeihmer's Getty Images Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood" Receiving his knighthood in 2009 AFP PHOTO/Ian Nicholson/POOL Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "Life doesn't happen in chapters - at least, not regular ones" Pratchett at home in 2009 Rex Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it” Pratchett at the world congress of the World Federation of the Right-to-Die Societies in Zurich, 2012 Corbis Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out” Attends the South Bank Sky Arts Awards in 2012 Getty Images Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes "Insanity is Catching" Pratchett won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize at the Telegraph Hay Festival, pictured with Snuff the pig in 2013 Getty Terry Pratchett: A career in quotes “People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it” - Mort Campaigning for Dementia Friends in 2014 PA

The author dug up 81kg of ore to produce it, smelting using a makeshift kiln built out of clay and hay.

To add a trademark element of fantasy to it, he threw in "several pieces of meteorites - thunderbolt iron, you see - highly magical, you've got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not."

Arms of Terry Pratchett

The metal was then shaped into a sword by a local blacksmith, finished with silverwork and stored by Pratchett in a secret location, apparently because he feared it might pique the interest of the authorities.