Mark,
That looks great! I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Jean,
You are one lucky man.

Jean,

How about mirror imaging the the initials at the center ot the guard so that the j curlique points both ways from the center to the ends?

Curt

The blade is looking great! As usual really nice work over at OlliN. The hollow ground section looks awesome. Jean, your sword is going to be great, and even if it's not quite as big as it would have been, it's still HUGE! Can't wait to see this one finished!

Hello!
So, what happened? It was really gripping to read this thread. It's like a novel, and now I feel like if the last pages were missing.

Jean, I admire your patience!

I look forward to seeing the finished product but I would have gone with some inlay.. . . ;)

Jeremy

Hopefully this will be the last chapter of the story. I look forward to seeing the result of the project, it's going to be a great sword. I wish good luck and patience to Jean and of course to the makers!
Please keep the infos updated, thanks!

The new blade steel has been obtained by OlliN and should be ground to shape in mid-January with heat treating expected to be done before the end of the month: So if the heat treating jinx is over, things should move forward to new stuff rather than re-doing stuff early in February: So this is the situation at this time.

Again the guys at OlliN are keeping me informed regularly even if they and I don't post progress reports here for a while, as just repeating ( re-doing ) stuff is just boring and frustrating for everyone, I hope that soon there will be more progress pics to show.

Some of the problems have been useful in making some design decisions if one reads some of the earlier posts: So the problems haven't been only a negative thing as the final sword should be better for it.

I have met Mark in person a couple of times and I've wielded and cut with some of the swords that he has made and in my opinion, Mark is doing what he was Born to do, to smith swords :!: Some members may have seen the water color painting of me by my cousin and myArmoury Member "James Conahan". Jim was born to be an artist, at age 7 he could draw better than any of the art teachers at the nearby high school.
Mark has that same kind of talent for creating swords!

Bob

how is the sword doing it would be good to see how it is now.

Jean, your sword project will now have a considerable history all it's own before you even get hold of it. Does the blade have a name? It may be worthy of one...

I guess I'm due to send them an e-mail for a situation update: Sort of hope that things are working out with blade #4 and hope there won't be a need for a blade #5.

Obviously this hasn't been the " ideal " situation and I believe that this specific project has had problems and delays not typical of what one should expect from OlliN: I don't think I'm being overly " kind " and patient about it because I have read numerous testimonials by other people here who have had positive experiences with OlliN as far as customer service and the quality of the finished product.

So, I'm not worried in that the project will eventually be finished and I will have a great sword in both senses of the word or I will make some other arrangements with OlliN for either a refund or I will just accept one of their other standard/custom models as a substitute should the " CURSE " on this project make " THEM " want to give up ! At this point giving up is my very last option in order of preference.

I really like these guys and if this project goes south I still want one of their swords. :cool:

As to name of sword: After long discussion of different names I came up with the name " RAVENWOLF " for this sword for various mythological reasons and it sounds " COOL ". ;) :cool:

I apologize that this project has fallen off the map. It's been plagued with so many problems that I had been holding out on posting until something positive started to happen, allowing progress to once again be made. This is by far the most delay-ridden project that I've had. I suppose that's another reason why I had been hesitant to post. There are plenty of stories out there of customers having to wait much longer for than swords than they had originally been quoted. I never wanted to fall into that category, but have been unable to avoid it in this case. Most of the delay has come from steel vendor/heat treater issues in them not being able to provide the services required. Each new vendor required samples to be made and tested. I've lost track of how many heat treating vendors we've sent sample blades to. I thought we had all of the issues dealt with on the last blade, but that one ended up being usable as well. Needless to say, that was a disappointment to us all.

I honestly can't thank Jean enough for being so patient through all of this. This definitely isn't an ideal situation for him to be in, which does make me feel bad. I'm doing everything in my power to get things back on track. I just hope his patience lasts as long as my stubbornness about getting this sword made. (I can be pretty stubborn)

On a more progress related note, the latest blade is at the heat treaters. Last I heard, it should be shipping back by then end of the week.

Doesn't life usually throw "less than ideal" situations at us from time to time?

I believe that righteous men have nothing to fear or be embarrased about if given a truly taxing set of circumstances, especially when putting considerable efforts towards resolving them. Good workmanship and experience will most always prevail...

Please remember this: The fact that Ollin, or Jean, are not giving up says volumes towards a positive outcome. That, and it's probably going to be one kick-@ss sword when it's done ;). Maybe it will even have some sort of density, oops I mean destiny... (feeble attempt at humor)