Swordmaiden reborn!

A quick plug for a Facebook friend and a great site, reborn.

Swordmaiden.net 

This is a revamp of the old Swordmaiden site, brought to you by Isabella Evangelista (m/k/a Amanda Michaels) with the permission of Lady Eichling, the original web mistress. Much of it was salvaged from an Internet Archive snapshot from 2009, but Isabella is working hard to bring it completely back to life. 

I've checked it out and it has some good stuff (including some armor ideas I will be incorporating in my kit).

So, if you are a woman fighter in the SCA, or are are thinking about it, or know a woman fighter, check out this site!

Purpose

I was honored to receive a comment to my last post by Dr. David Friedman, known in these current middle ages as Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, KSCA, OP, OL.  Receiving the comment, and responding, brought into better focus some of the reasons I started this blog, which I wanted to share.

I am a recovering underachiever.  There; I've said it. Up until my 40s, I simply could not seem to get my act together. I was always the guy with "so much potential" who couldn't seem to prosper. There were always too many distractions, or I did not have enough self confidence, or some other lame excuse. 

Somewhere along the line, I got past that failing, for the most part. I mean, I went back to undergrad and got a degree, attended law school, graduated and passed the bar. But I still sometimes would find myself sabotaging my own progress.

One area I feel that needs work is procrastination. I have conquered my tendency to put things off in my work life and, in fact, I'm very deadline oriented in the practice of law. In my personal life, not so much.  I have in the last year found this to especially be a problem in getting my armor together to hit people with rattan swords. 

I believe that this is because I get a picture of how things ought to be in my mind, but I know that as soon as I put cutter to leather, that thing will no longer be perfect.  A silly concern, I know, as know one (except me) is expecting me to be perfect.  But a nagging concern, nonetheless.

That is why I quoted Ms. Frizzle in my last post -- "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy."  That is what I need to do in building my armor.  And I sense that I may not be the only one with that problem! Perhaps some others can take heart from my experiences and do things they might not have attempted. 

So, one purpose of this blog is to get me to take chances, make mistakes and get messy, and by example to help others do the same. 

So stick around and see what OTHER mistakes I can make.  It might be fun.  At least, it should be educational.  

I leave you with a quote from Thomas Edison, who failed many, many times in perfecting the incandescent light bulb:  "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  

That is what I like to think I'm doing - finding all the ways that won't work!  :)

Experiments in Leather

I decided to try and build some elbows from some of the leather scraps I picked up at Tandy a few months ago, using the plans from Duke Cariodoc's The Perfect Armor Improved. My results were less than spectacular, but it was a learning experience and the only failed experiment is one in which you did not learn something.

I began with the elbow patter HG Cariadoc published.

Simple, right?

Well, easier said than done.

I cut two mirror images of the pattern from my leather (5-7 oz vegetable tanned bellies), which I had soaked in water before cutting.  Then I attempted to following HG Cariadoc's instructions. 

First hiccup -- someone lost the thermometer!  The process requires that you heat the water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius).  So, I "eyeballed" it to see what I could do.  After all, our ancestors didn't have mercury thermometers in the 14th Century, right?

After heating the two pieces (separately) for what I thought was the right time at the right temperature, I took each piece out and tried sandwiching the piece in two bowls, each of which has a diameter of about 6.5 inches.  

As I had feared, the process left major folds and creases in the leather, which I attempted to smooth out with my fingers. 

The resulting pieces look like this:

 

The piece on the left shrank more than the piece on the right, and is thicker and harder. Both pieces are not in the optimum shape for an elbow cop because there was too much leather that needed to be removed or folded to create the right shape.  

So, what have I learned? 

1. Water temperature (and immersion time) is very important in getting a consistent product.

2. Modifications must be made to the pattern or process to obtain a "cop" shape for the elbows.

For the next step in the experiment, I am going to try softening the larger cop in water, then removing a gusset of material on the front and rear of the cop and riveting or  bolting it together.  Then I will try  re-hardening it in 180 degree water with a thermometer!  

Hopefully, this will give me the desired shape and size. If so, I am considering reinforcing the cop with plastic to add some extra protection, followed by adding a strap that will ride in the fold of my elbow, holding the cop on. I also intend to experiment with baking wet leather in the oven at 200 degrees and liberally basting the leather with hot rabbit glue or other organic glue to more accurately reproduce what is believed to be the period procedure (or at least, one of them) for creating cour boulli. (See excellent articles here, here and here).

My fantasy is that, once I have a good pattern and consistent procedure down, I can turn the cops out fairly easily and create new loaner/new fighter gear for our Barony. 

And remember, do as I say, not as I do -- "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"  

Big Announcement!

I have a big announcement -- after nearly 18 years of working for other attorneys, I have taken a leap of faith and hung out my own shingle. That's right -- I've joined the ranks of the self employed!

Here is my firm contact information, just in case someone needs it:


Lee Keller King
The King Law Firm
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
(281) 740-9385
(832) 408-7621 fax

Areas of Practice: General civil litigation; family law; civil appeals.

Admitted to practice in: The State of Texas (1994); U.S. District Courts, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas;U.S Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Meanwhile, Old Tired Squire should return to active status soon as I will be setting my own hours and not having to commute 60 miles a day to (OMG) Midtown Houston.

Thanks,

Leif

Conditioning, Part Deux

I must confess I have been less than faithful  to my conditioning goals the last few weeks.  Too little time and too little energy was my excuse.

This morning I kicked myself in the butt and made a change.  Not a drastic change - I got up at 5:30 instead of 6:00 a.m., but a change. Then, two laps of the neighborhood with HeavyHands for a nice, warm, cardio workout - not too light; not too heavy.

Followed up with a light breakfast (1 egg, over easy, on wheat toast) and getting the sleepy-head boys up while getting ready for work.  All and all, a good start!

Leif

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

I am striving as I write this account of my reentry into chivalric combat in the SCA to be as honest as possible about my progress.  And so I give you The Good, the Bad & the Ugly:

The Good:

I have had back-to-back great fighter practices; the first at Stargate practice on August 14, and the second at Gate's Edge practice last Sunday, August 21.

I had the opportunity to meet Duke Ulstead, Sir Alexis and Sir Ysfael at the Stargate practice, and Ulstead and Ysfael gave me practice [beat me like a rug].  Hopefully, I learned something.

Sir Godwin was also there with the Baronial loaner armor and he kindly allowed me to take [foisted it off on me] it home.  My assignment is to clean and repair what can be made useful and get rid of what is past its useful life. The upside is that I have something to fight in until I can finish my own stuff.

At the Gate's Edge Fighter Practice this last Sunday, I was able to spar with Ld. George de Breton (Sir Ulstead's squire), Squire Gregor Mac Beathain and Ld. Orin Ketilsson  (upcoming Stargate Knight's Marshal).  It was freaking hot, but I didn't pass out and hopefully some more learning will sink in.  (I'm old, but I'm trainable -- I hope).

The Bad:

I have a lot to re-learn and a lot to un-learn.  For one, I am no longer an average-to-above-average size fighter!  Losing 60 pounds has changed what I can (and hopefully could not) do on the field.

Then:

And now:

So, I have to (1) work on my footwork, (2) work on my hip snap (thinking Count Sir Simonn of Amber Isle) and (3) start thinking about fighter as a smaller than average fighter (see #2).  A lot to work on, but it should be fun.

The Ugly:


One of my faults is that I sometimes get impatient.  Not as bad as somebody at the King's Castle, but it happens.  It happened Sunday, in fact.

I went to Lowe's  and bought a half sheet of Birch plywood and some Titebond glue and came home and bent a shield blank.  I don' t have a press (yet) but I used the 30 gallon plastic barrel I got Saturday from a client and some racketing straps I had lying around the garage.  The result was not as good as I hoped (or as good as my last curved shield, back in the Dark Ages), but usable.

The first problem was that the Lowe's work who cut my half sheet in half apparently had the grain going the wrong direction.  The result was that the face cracked in two spots.  :-(

Second, because I was impatient and didn't wait until I had two barrels to use as forms, the lower (unsupported) part of the shield is shallower than the upper part.

Third, there were some voids in the glue on the edges because I did not have any C clamps to press them together (as in days of yore).  However, I applied glue to those spots and used wood screws to draw the layers together, so that should not be a major issue.

Also, I used wood screws and glue to mend the cracked spots the best I could.

 But what the heck, I was impatient!

My next try should be much better as I will either (1) wait until I get clamps and another 30 gallon barrel; or (2) wait until my oldest son's girlfriend's dad can help me build a proper shield press.

Did I mention that I sometimes get impatient???

Random Update!

This random update is brought to you by BEER!  Not only does it taste good; it's good for you!
BEER!  Drink some today!

Also brought to you by Lee's imagination -- creating fantasies for over 50 years!

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I had a brain drizzle (like a brainstorm, but not as intense) on the ride in to work today (I do some of my best thinking on my motorcycle).  Instead of using a tee shirt for the base of my Thrift Store Armor, why not use one of the long-sleeved shirts in my closet?  I mean, hopefully, my wife will never even notice that one is gone!  :-)

And so, voila!

The new victim!  I mean, donor...I mean...

Well, you know what I mean.