L.A. bladesmith Nicholas Berkofsky hand-forges stunning knives and jewelry that are designed to ... but I enjoy making showpiece knives like swords and daggers,” he said.

If you’re going full bore into swords-and-sandals shoutouts, you could do worse than summoning the ghost of a classic “Spartacus” moment. In “Gladiator II,” the gladiators’ overseer ...