I just got back from a really awesome holiday break - spent Thanksgiving week in New Glarus with the entire Albion crew and their families. Mindblowing.

Thanks to everyone - a MUCH needed break, great to catch up with old friends, and finally meet some new ones - at least finally meeting everyone face to face. (Yes, I must admit, John, Eric, Joel, Gabe - you guys do rock like Satan. ;) )

I could go on and on - so much wild stuff happening in that shop, and some killer surprises coming up. No, I won't let them out of the bag... I suppose the best thing I can do is hit some highlights, though...

I got the grand tour and general introductions first. Huge maze of a facility. Quick pass through, then landed in The Far Side taking with Jody and Shan-Aan. Wild stuff happens back there... those two have some neat projects going on. One can't help but feel almost overwhelmed with creativity back there.

Started off the next day running straight into Peter. I had a brief chat and finally the oportunity to shake the hand of a good friend I hadn't had a chance to meet face to face before, and he and Harlan were off to a meeting. Some time talking with Howy and Amy, and into the shop I went. Over the next few days, I got to see nearly every aspect of taking a sword from Peter's concept sketches to a finished sword, packed for shipping. It's easy to say "yeah, pieces come in, get fitted to a blade, gripped, and there you go", and on a very superficial level, that's a good summary. It is WAY more involved than that. The skill of each of these craftsmen and the teamwork and effort that goes into these swords is nothing short of amazing. I loved my swords before - now, they're even more amazing.

Here's the quick rundown of the process - even this won't do it any justice...

The piece is researched, and a concept is made up, then refined.
The blade is prototyped, and fittings made.
The design is reviewed and tweeked.
Once the piece is given a green light, it enters production.
Waxes for the hilt components are made, then molds to replicate the wax are made - this is a very neat process.
Waxes are made, and each one is hand finished, cleaned up to make good castings from.
Castings are made.
Blades are made, ground, heat treated, finished. All blades are QC'd by at least 2 sets of eyes...
Castings are cleaned up (castings are well done, but they aren't nearly as pretty as they look on finished swords - we don't think about this - also, the better the mold, the better the waxes. The better the waxes, the better the castings. The better the castings, the better the finished piece... everyone depends on/builds upon the efforts of the rest!)
Cross and pommel are fitted to the blade - a lot of care is put into this to get things right... gentle persuasion.
The swords then go to get grip cores put on and get the leather grip applied. Each one is done with hand cut leather, risers applied carefully...
Once complete, the swords again get a careful look before going to the shipping area.

Bottom line - your sword comes from a very insightful and knowledgeable concept, passes through a lot of very skilled hands through a lot different processes before coming to you. I thought I appreciated this process before I saw it happen. I didn't know the magnitude and complexity... Now, I'm pretty impressed.



Another amazing part of the trip was spending Thanksgiving with Eric and his family, Harlan and his daughter, and Peter. Over a ton of Turkey, every kind of pie I could think of, and some good cognac, we really had a blast discussing swords, WMA, history, and generally solving the world's problems. First holiday I've had off in about 8 years... this was a very special way to spend it.



Pieces I saw in progress or finished - Lady V (finished - NEAT, quick handling piece), SoSMT (saw the first waxes from the mold, and the sword mocked up), and the messers. Oh, God... those messers... pure, truly insane, delicately evil dance... These are NOT hackers... they are wicked finesse pieces, with which a skilled swordsman could simply take an opponent apart at the hinges with a graceful display. I've got my order in for the Knecht, which totally, totally won me over the instant I held it. This one won't be around long...



At any rate, I can't begin to say how wonderful the trip turned out to be. I learned so much from everyone there... from the vision and business through Mike, Howy, Amy, and Harlan, to the forging and grinding lessons from Jason, Joe and Harlan, to the waxes and casting from Peter and Carl, to the cutlery work from Eric, Joel, and John, to the gas welding, metal fitting and scabbard discussions and lessons from Peter and Kevin, to the historical and theory discussions with Peter, Eric, and Harlan... Unreal.

A very heartfelt and sincere thank you to all my friends in New Glarus!

I'm glad you had a great time Aaron but I knew you would. :D

Well, envious and jealous would be understating it: WOW, we will have to pump you for information and fun stories for a while.

Seriously the envy is friendly and under control: Only wish we could all have been there ! ( Well me mostly. :p :lol: )

One serious learning experience and really cool getting to put faces and voices and smiles on all those long distance friends.

After all that Hurricane business I'm really glad that you got to have this much fun.

Any pictures ????

Well, I'm really happy for you. :cool: :D

Did they take you down to the dungeon?

Don't forget the true highlight of your trip and night out on the town with Mr. Mikey!

Aaron, that sounds like a fantastic time. You definitely deserve it after what you went through. Can't wait to see those 'surprises'.

Nathan, I think you need to add an 'insane jealousy' emoticon so that we can express our true feelings. :)

Aaron, was this the Vocation Vacation thing, or just a visit? It sounds like you had a fabulous time, and, like probably everyone else here, I envy you. :)

Aaron,

It was really great having you join us for Thanksgiving. Thanks for all the nice comments, and come back anytime.

Patrick, we sure missed you. We thought of you often...especially when deer would walk across the road... ;-)

Best,

Eric

Aaron,
Well, I've waited several days to send you my congrats on what sounds like a wonderful time. Why wait? 'Cause I'm jealous as hell. Haven't had a real vacation in so long I'm not sure what the word really means, ROFL. After hearing about Albion's inner workings from PK I'm really glad you got to see it and meet with all those guys. Be well!