Barrel Helms part deux

Well, here are three of them, ready to go. Well, actually, two and a half....one of them still needs work...the top one. All the pop rivets must now be changed over for solid rivets, now that everything is in place! (thats what apprentices are for!) I also stil have to do some file work to decorate up the eye slot a bit. Have to be careful though...too much file work can render it unsafe! (An SCA Marshal tries to fit a broomstick into the eye slot. if it goes in, it is unsafe. I believe this is done when the occupant is out.) I tried to make it as much like as an American Eagle as I could, and still let it be good and European medieval. It looks kind of crummy close up but the crowd can see it just fine, and it is certainly distinctive. The lion on the middle picture might confuse people though. You can't really tell what they are from 40 feet away, hopefully the lion has spikey enough legs to make it different from the smooth eagle wings.

The bottom one is kind of neat. With those 12 gauge face plates, you don't need a centre bar to keep things from shifting around, so I did some file work on the edges. The top point was an aesthetic mistake, but for vision, that extra quarter inch cut out makes all the difference. The vision in this helm is stunning...you put it on, and the metal is so close to the eyes that it sort of disappears. I don't think it needs any brass work, or any further finishing....it looks different from all the others, and it is functional. It is doing its job...

The last of the set will be a brass Fleur de Lys on the brow, and that's pretty much it. Maybe I'll get that done today! These little details take a LOT of time...but it is time I quite enjoy useing up. These are not especially pretty, or especially artistic, but they are interesting, visually exciting, and they illustrate how a little customizing will go a long way to make a plain helm into a good looker. None of these nasals took more than a couple of hours to do.

English Wheels are finally in!

(click on the above to enlarge)
I know, getting new English Wheels is nothing to really get excited about, really, but woo hoo! That was my big shop purchase of the year. And I also know that almost nobody has a clue what an Engllish wheel actually IS! I'll put pictures up tomorrow, but for right now, I am just happy to finally get this tool I have heard so much about for so long. It is a fairly simple machine....A flat wheel 2 inches wide, and 8 inches across forms the top wheel. The bottom wheel is a bowling ball...or rather a slice of one. The metal is moved between the two wheels, and they magically form the steel into, oh, a fender, or a breast plate. Well, that is the plan anyway.
Major piss offs, aside from the inch of ice on everything here.......Fed Ex ground. Honestly, I have never had so many problems as when I started using Fed Ex ground. Its no cheaper than UPS, but it seems that one in 8 shipments goes wonky somehow.
Oh, enough bitching. The day was lovely, trees looked like they were made from glass! I had a rare case of sunlight glinting off the ice covered branches, with a gentle snow squall. Couldn't quite see across the St. Lawrence River for the snow.....it was so pretty! And tonight! My Ed the Sock Hot Tub Party. Hope all my blogging buddies can make it....should be a perfect evening to blow in the new year.

The cartoon strip? Well....it seems that my friend Rxxxxxxx was one of the actors at the new vendor run Ren Faire which took over from the professional faire this last summer. There have been dozens of oddball things happening...people outright lying to us is only one of them. (The bare faced lies is why I am not putting money into this show.) I am blown away by the fact they actually ran a faire...but when you think about it, how hard is it when everybody is behind you? The vendors all will do their part, the beer pretty much sells itself, so where can you lose money? Especially when you don't pay your actors! Rxxxxxx and many other actors simply did not get paid. And so a dream crumbles.....

Christmas week!

Oh My Dog, its Christmas Eve! How did THAT sneak up on me so fast?
Its been a busy busy week here at the armoury...made 5 helmets in the last two weeks. Above is a picture of a few of them. They are not done yet....they still have to have the front Nasal bars put on, and some decorative brass work. Right now, they don't look pretty and chivalrous...they just look mean! I didn't really plan it that way...its just the way the new face plates come up, giving the eye slot the flat inward facing triangles.
Those face plates have big 3/4 inch holes in them so that the wearer can actually breathe in this helm. First one I made out of 16 gauge....I found that I could bend it in my bare hands....all those holes took the strength out of the face plate. Into the trash it went. Made one in 14 gauge steel. Better....but still needs to be supported in the middle. Client liked it, but I didn't think it was as good as the 12 gauge I eventually made these out of. (The smaller the gauge number, the thicker the metal. A stop sign is usually 14 gauge steel just for comparison purposes.) These are true battle helms....tough enough to withstand a guy with a baseball bat! Fairly roomy inside, about 3/4 inch of padding needed all around or else it rings like a church bell.
These are going to support the Wisconsin Renaissance Festival. The owner is a really nice sounding Dude, who is looking to get a troupe armoured up for, oh, just general purpose armoured soldiering. Human Chess games, Royal guardsmen, that sort of stuff. He wanted it to be good enough for anything. He's getting that!

Well, a couple of hours on these helms....then maybe seeing if I can find some "Peace and Goodwill Towards Men".

Merry Christmas

Christmas.....

(Dunstan made this!. Click on it to Enlarge)

Got the tree up, and decorated. We are using the new LED lights...they make all the difference for peace of mind. No hot bulbs....and you can string as many on as you like, they won't load down your circuit.

Small things to amuse a small mind, I know, but what can I say...I am so full of the mellow joy of christmas I can only say Merry Christmas....drive sober...and don't feel obliged to make EVERY cookie Jennifer....or drink EVERY beer Zlanth. Well, maybe scratch that last admonition.

Anyway, not a bad picture of me up above there. It was at the Ren Fair, oh, three or four years ago, and this little girl came up on my deck, took one look at me, and screamed. Then hid behind her mother. This was very disconcerting. Her mom told me that she had never seen a man with a beard before. (Oh, the horrors of modern culture!) I knelt down to her level and said to her mom's knees...you didn't scream like that when I brought you your presents last Christmas eve! The sobbing stopped. A little eye peeks around the mom's knee....Santa? she asks. Of course I reply....this is what I do during the summer when there is no snow! She came out all the way and asked me who I was giving presents to during the summer. I gave her a candy (I always had baskets of candy out for the taking) and explained that during the summer, the daddies all want a toy. But daddy toys were usually big, sharp, and dangerous to anybody who is not a friend. (chuckles all around). then I said...Now take your daddy and mommy next door to look at the musical instruments next door. Those are toys for mommies. And they have big gong you can ring! (groans all around).

The top picture is what I looked like at that show! Click to enlarge it...my beard was magnificent and full..like Moses' beard! The nice lady is Myrna, my neighbour...she showed up without telling me she was coming...the stinker! That show was in Toronto, a good 7 hours drive from here at home in Ottawa!

Night all....

A clean house....

Brenda is getting ready for a fun filled holiday season. Hopefully some family time with my brother, and a good time during New Years! She is happily making ice cream this week. It is so cold out that the ice cream tub (which needs to be chilled really really cold! And we gots that this week!) lives outside. I want to make apple cinnamon oatmeal ice cream, my signature dish. She will be making vanilla cherry, and lemonchella ice cream. Also, with luck, rum raisin ice cream. There is something about home made ice cream which sets it apart from store bought...I think it is that the eggs are fresh instead of processed. I will be getting sooooooo fat this Christmas!

Maybe I should bake cookies...though I think I am getting a shipment of cookies from a professional chef in the Toronto area of my aquaintance.

Well, back to work. I think Brenda has some curtains to hang....

Love.....L'Amour.....

(click on image to expand it)


A broken heart is a terrible thing. A fellow in Western Mass. left a diamond ring in a dude's car...with a note that perhaps it will go to somebody who knows love. Its a 15 thousand dollar ring! Oh My! This story here...http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051216/od_nm/ring_dc;_ylt=AghJjuG3tmJNK2u22NjjC_8uQE4F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-

And of course, my blogging buddy Pei Ling over at http://peebrain.blogspot.com/ seems to be an angel with a broken heart. I have featured her poetry here from time to time....if an old Cossack like me can enjoy it, it must be special!


I carry your silence
In my heart
I wear your image
on heavy glass shapes.
It is scratchedand worn
in perpetual soft focus.
Your silence is
a dull bladethat I gut passion with.
Each cleft crushesmore cleanlythan a clean cut.
Your image is an overlaythat I tween with razors
Too few pixels were sampled,so you are left,a flawless gouge
on my left breast.
I carry your silencein my heart.
Sometimes I forget it exists.
Sometimes it b-b-breaks.

Web sites! Arrgh!

Nothing like a computer to enable you to do an hour's work in only six hours! Finally finished updating the helmet section though! What a job! Lots of new helms (well, new pictures anyway) and a few things moved around so as to make loading quicker.
Everything that could go wrong DID go wrong! I actually dropped a file! Butterfingers, I could see doing that in an office with a manila folder, but a computer file? I was moving it from point A to point B, and addidently dropped it...somewhere on the 'puter. Not sure where. Had to use the "find file" function in order to track the little sucker down! It was buried down somewhere in the "quicken" files.
Then I discovered that these three files which to my eye are the same, are actually not recognized as the same by the links! Helm1.JPG, Helm1.jpg, Helm1.jpeg...... Consistency! I need consistency!

Got a couple of games at auction t'other night. One was Myst, and the sequel Riven. I have decided that Myst is the most boring game since watching the Montreal Expos! Not exactly point and shoot! Waste of another 2 hours! I just kept going to see if it would get better! It didn't! I think it would be more entertaining to use the CD's as skeets!

Brenda has been in court all day. She is not a witness, so she just went for interest sake. (The lady next door is accused of setting fire to her house) She was all alone at the courthouse, hearing all those awful things said about her. I personally don't believe she did it....at least not intentionally, but as soon as mental health is brought into question, the whole world just seems to turn against you. Brenda spent the time holding her hand, and letting her sob. Either she or one of her personalities did intentionally burn the place out, or it was simple carelessness with a cigarette. Either way, she lost everything.

People say....I can smoke if I want to...there is no evidence of second hand smoke hurting anybody. Well, how about second hand fire? Half the fires in Canada are directly or indirectly caused by smokers. Even kids playing with matches....where did they get the matches from? That alone would be a good reason to re-think putting a burning weed in your face. But judgement is not mine....I can only try to understand.

Weird and dumb!

Moose stories are always good! (Thanks to Oz for the above pic!) Canadian traffic jam....

Below is the story of two drunken moose. Not sure why I find this funny, but somehow......

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/11/14/1306604-ap.html

Then of course there are dumb and dumber! The dumb story is this one....

OSLO, Norway -- Norwegian pizza deliveryman Vegard Sjaastad saw a familiar face when a customer handed him a Visa card.
It was Sjaastad's own credit card, with his picture on the back of it.

Complete story is here....http://www.theksbwchannel.com/food/5483008/detail.html

And the dumber story is here. Being blond myself, I can see how a visit to a hollywood home would imply some cocaine. And if I were an "aspiring model" (presumably wearing a tee shirt with a logo saying "who needs brains when I have these!) I might figure that the large block of cheese on the coffee table is actually a brick (OMG!) of cocaine. And if I was "REALLY REALLY STOOPID" I would hire some dude to kill the owners of said coke, er, cheese, in order to rip off the biggest high I could imagine in my wildest dreams! But... it gets worse!

Read all about it here.....http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1206cheesy-plot06-ON.html

Now, THOSE stories should put a smile on your face!

Oh Bloody Hell!

(Viking helmets...out of my shop....click on pic to enlarge)

(to the tune of Oh Holy Night)

Oh....Bloody Hell!
The whole shield wall is crumbling!
I fear that soon I shall see Odin's face

Yea, there it goes, the foe is over running
There's little time and I can't find my mace

A ray of hope, my weary brain rejoices
For up there dawns the salvation of my hide!

Fall on your face! Pretend the foe has slain you
Then shiv him in the back, and then
Run, run like the wind....

That shiv, that friend of mine,
oh dear old shiv, that friend of mine...

flagrantly plagarized from
Strygor Von Talmutz from his songbook
"A Viking's Christmas in Wales"
(bet you thought I had mercifully forgotten it didn't you!?)

Fine bunch o lads (and lassies)

Tonight, this bunch of reprobates will be training in tricksy ways to play with live steel! Yaaay!

Well....its...what I do.......