As is the case with many family businesses creating handmade crafts in Europe, many are facing immense financial pressure due to lack of customers.
One such group are those famous swordsmiths of Toledo, in central Spain, who have 2000+ year history creating the finest steel in the world. Even the famous Mariano Zamorano, Toledo's master swordsmith for decades, has retired this year, quite sad as I had met the man and bought a fine longsword from him back in late 2019, a few months just before the pandemic. Only Antonio Arellano is left as the last master swordsmith in Toledo.
Thankfully is appears an influx of orders from TV series and film productions seeking to create historically accurate props, Netflix just opened a production hub in Madrid, will go some way to helping to preserve this ancient craft. Here's the article from the Guardian I read today, highlighting the Toledo swordsmith's plight in the age of covid: