Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hero Bat'leth Made For Brian Bonsall

original movie prop

 It is the only Bat'leth ever made by any other prop house except for Prop'r or HMS. It was made by MEL (Make-up and Effects Laboratory) and it was made for Brian (Alexander Rozhenko) for one episode. The prop guys, set guys and everyone else were tired of Brian not being able to hold onto a steel framed rubber Bat'leth because of weight. The other one he used actually sold through IAW split away from the metal frame because he dropped it so often. They knew how much he would be using a Bat'leth in "Firstborn" so they wanted a solution to broken Bat'leths. MEL cast this one up and put bells on it for the kot'baval festival. Same size & thickness as the rubber ones but this one has no metal frame inside and they used super lightweight flexible resin. It was returned to MEL and they wanted it re-dressed for a new look on DS9. They re-wrapped it, took the bells off and nobody liked it! It was in MEL's possession until recently and I had the horrible re-dress removed and hand cut original stock wang put back on by one of the original prop masters who did them for the shows. It is the same one you see in the closeups in the episode.