Sir Shane, I shall definitely attend, I shall bring all 16 swords including the recently deceased :lol: Lowlander. Perhaps you might be interested in ressurrecting it from the dead? :lol: Maybe I should bring the Grosse Messer that I killed a while back too?
Gee, do you get the idea there is a bit of a destructive nature about me? :evil: :lol: Well, "not" on my Arms & Armor or Albion swords I assure you! Not a chance :!:

Also, is this limited to swords? Are polearms invited? I have some that cut, some that bash, some that gouge. Including the MRL Hewing Spear sharpened on a near 8 foot purpleheart wood pole.

I am very much looking forward to meeting fellow knights!

Sincerely,

Bob

Hey Bob,

Bring both of the blades that you killed. *G* We can take a look at them and see what we could do with them.

Things like polearms can be a bit of a pain to transport, but anything like that will be more than welcome.

Driving directions...

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=...p;name=%22

I'll put up a picture of the house on my website as well so people know what to look for. Also I'll look to see if there is a Notre Dame home game that I might want to direct people around. *G*

Shane

I keep forgetting to mention this... Gloves are a good idea to bring along for handling and/or cutting.

Shane

So what time is kickoff?

Also (you may have already done this) can you pm me a phone number in case I get myself lost?

I am confirming that this Nutcase of a Knight of the Sword will indeed be attending the Round Table event most kindly hosted by Shane Allee. I have lots of empty and clean plastic gallon jugs! The plan is to drive my van if I cannot fit everything in the car. Either way, I will be there! I will bring the javelin, the two deceased swords, my 8 Arms & Armor and 2 Albion Swords. A & A Danish War Axe, MRL Knightly Poleaxe, A & A Hungarian Axe and my A & A 12th Century Spear, Mace and matching Flail. Should I bring war hammers and axes too? Anything to wreck? Bashing wise? I do have some most adequate wrecking weaponry, grattus esp. Arms & Armor! :lol: :evil: :lol:

Bob

Hey Guys,

It is on the books for 1:00 pm, so somewhere there abouts. *G*

I'm sure that there is probably something around to bash on with stuff.

The weather is looking like it won't be too bad, high of 50. Sure as heck better than the snow we had yesterday.

If anyone has any questions just shoot me an email. Get lost or anything on the way just give us a call. Oh yeah no Notre Dame game, so no worries about traffic from that.

Shane

Shane thank you for hosting a very enjoyable event where I had the opportunity to meet other people from myArmoury with noble character. The Roman Spatha you made is beautiful as is the ancient Celtic sword that now belongs to Nate of whom I was also glad to meet as well as Joe Fults, Mark from Ollin blades who had some beautiful swords he made and his brother and everyone else. I very much enjoyed myself.

I guess I surprised you all when I cut through the huge jugs of water with the Arms & Armor Italian Three Ring Rapier :lol: !

Thanks Much!

Bob

Bob,

It was very nice to meet you.

A gentleman today, and a scholar I suspect, of this hobby you will someday also be.

Best regards,
Joe

Thank you Joe for your kind words! How I went along in life for so many years oblivious to my undying passion for this hobby, I simply do not know, but one thing for sure, I've been aware of it for a couple of years now. As I entered into this hobby I noticed something about the character in the people who were serious about their swords and right away I said to my wife "Gayle" you know there is something about the sword that attracts people of an unusual fine quality in character.
Today, was further proof of that statement. The polite respect, such as you displayed Joe, in asking to use my swords to cut, and everyone else did the same. I was the last one to arrive and everyone came to me and asked if I needed help bringing things to the backyard, even when I said "nah that's OK", everyone insisted on helping!
Yes Sir, I indeed met some very fine men today and a very fine lady, a professor no less and a very courteous lady she was! I had a really great time talking to Nate about ancient Celtic weaponry and shields. There was not a person there I did not find interesting in their own individual way and I include everyone present but to save from a lengthy post I will not elaborate. I woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck and then fell down an elevator shaft from my spinal arthritis this morning but once the medication started working I got things together and decided late was better than never and I am so glad I attended!

There is definitely something about the sword that attracts fine quality people I am convinced :!:

Bob

Well Jean, I will say this, it was nice to have a whole bunch of witnesses to my claim of cutting clean through a large cat litter plastic jug filled with water with my A & A Italian 3 Ring Rapier, and I had a jug even bigger than that, which I almost made it completely through except for 1 1/2" total of plastic material, which I think I talked myself out of succeeding in doing. I know I heard someone behind me say after I cut clean through that large cat litter jug "I never thought it would cut through the jug, not a rapier and not a jug that big!" Cut it clean in half! Gallon jugs, I can cut those in half all day long with that rapier. I tell ya, I love that rapier to no end!
Nate had a very interesting book on the dark age Germanic Tribes metal work having to do with shields, some sword hilts, etc. I'll let the others tell the rest.
It was a cool day about 50 degrees but sunny and a lot of warm people, which made it a beautiful northern October day!

Bob

It sounds like everyone had a great time. Bob, I'm glad you were able to spend time with some other 'sword' folks.

I pickle chipped the cutting stand...which was cool in a way, but says entirely too much about my control. :D

Well Joe, it was a nice clean thin chip! But it does take some getting used to before trying the fancy footwork strike with that Arms & Armor Highland Claymore, it is a beast ya know! :lol:

Bob

I hope everyone had a good time and it was worth the drive. It would have been nice if a few more people could have made it, but I know that by the end of the day I was pretty beat and wish I had the time to talk a bit more with everyone who did make it. Could have been a bit warmer and less windy, but we were pretty lucky seeing how it was about the nicest day we have had in some time. Cool and breezy beats rain or snow any day.

Matt did take some pictures and should be posting them in a few days.

Maybe if things are going well this next spring and there is interest, we might be able to have another one.

Shane

Hello! Mark and I attended the Gathering as well. It was a wonderful time! Shane did a great job organizing the event. With everyone bringing there own cash of swords and weapons there was a great selection of different pieces to try cutting with. And getting to chat with some of the myArmoury folks was one of the highlights of the trip. Joe Fults, Bob Burn, Nathan Bell and Shane where some of the ones in particular that gave the water filled milk jugs something to fear.

I snapped a bunch of pictures of the gathering. I'm finishing up some work on a couple of orders and I should be posting some pictures here and at the Ollin site in a couple of days.

Thanks again Shane for a wonderful time.

Best,

Matt

Matt,

It was a pleasure to meet you and your brother Mark as well. Its always interesting to meet the artists behind the work. You guys and Shane are doing some interesting things and I think it will be especially cool when there is a forge for all of you to work with.

There are a couple pics up here:

http://www.ollinsworddesign.com/osd-news.html

good times.

Matt, I would like to thank you for the photo and your very nice comments of me on your website, for which I am very grateful! :) Indeed, I found it a very unique experience to hold my Albion Berserkr in one hand while holding the Ollin Blade Magnus Koll in the other, made by you and your brother Mark. Two very beautiful Viking single edged swords were there in my hands to examine and they both felt equally delightful. I seem to be a real fan of single edged swords as well as double edged swords. It's the feel of the power of that "spine" behind the length of the edge of the blade, that erases all doubt that this is a no nonsense chopper straight out of the gates of hell here and it's all about business getting done!
I felt every bit of that in your Magnus Koll, it's one helluva fierce sword that is as full of life as it is downright serious about getting down to doing business
I was very glad to meet you Matt and with you and Mark only being in Wisconsin and me being here in a Western Suburb of Chicago, I certainly hope I have not seen the last of either of you! Maybe we could hook up at the Renaissance Faire this summer?
Thanks for posting the pictures, it was nice to see those great shields displayed again! I really liked that display in particular!

Funny thing, I had just finished talking to my wife and mother about how terrible I had felt when I woke up last Saturday and how I was uncertain for a while if I was going to go (although I knew I would go anyway), and that after I had arrived, how glad I was that I made it, because I enjoyed myself so much! To be able to talk to other sword fanatics who are as obsessed as I am and could talk about swords till Hell froze over and not tire of it!

Joe Fults coming back and telling me how he accidently pickle chipped some wood with the Arms & Armor Highland Claymore, when I was not paying the least attention but had already said: "Please use any of my swords that you want to"!
Ya know, the unsolicited honesty about that, speaks for itself! And this is just "one" incident of his honesty and character and the honesty and character of "Everyone" who was there!
I met very good people last Saturday at Shane Allee's home, all of them!


"Joe, I am damn proud to know you Sir"!

Sincerely,

Bob