[Nathan Robinson]

Hi Everybody!

We just finished our Pay it Forward contest!

This contest had two prizes I purchased with the idea of putting some immediate cash into a respected maker's bank account while at the same creating a new customer opportunity for that maker.

The contest winners have been randomly chosen and they are:



J.D. Crawford wins the first prize:





Victor R. wins the second prize:





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Each winner gets a $200 Gift Certificate redeemable on items from Arms & Armor usable as he sees fit: be that on a stock catalog item or something completely custom. What a nice choice to have!

Please take a moment to give your congratulations to the winners.


To review the details of this contest, please visit the Contest Announcement.


Hopefully I can do this type of contest again in the future with another maker. Any members from our community who would like to donate money to such an effort are encouraged to contact me directly with your thoughts.

[P. Cha]

Well I guess I can be the first to say congradulations .

[Sander Marechal]

Congratulations J.D. and Victor!

[Roger Hooper]

Congratulations to both -- what will you buy?

[Artis Aboltins]

Congratulations to the both of you!

[Craig Johnson]

Just wanted to add our congratulations! We look forward to making you both something very nice. Thank you all for supporting the industry as a whole and myArmoury which is such a great resource for every single one of us.

Best
Craig and the whole A&A Gang.

[Chad Arnow]

Yay for the winners! (Boo for me...)

[J.D. Crawford]

Alright! Thanks Nathan and thanks everyone for your congratulations. This is the 2nd and best prize I have won in my life - sure beats the set of beer glasses I got from my local pub a few years ago.

As to what it will be used for - Craig Johnson and I have already been discussing and researching a custom project. I'm not going to give it all away just yet, but here is a teaser. Its a rare type of medieval sword that is classified in the major typologies (Oakeshott, Geibig) but rarely actually seen, at least in North America. In fact there are only 3 known surviving specimens, and we had to find an academic article to get pictures and specs on them. I have never seen a replica of this sword type, so we might be breaking new ground with this one - looking forward to posting progress pictures when they become available.

As for the pay-forward aspect, I have some ideas that I'll discuss with you Nathan.

Thanks again!

[Tim Lison]

Congratulations to JD and Victor, you lucky dogs!

JD- Your secret sword plan sounds very cool...I can't wait to see it. I know that you have good taste from your previous projects and A&A have the skill to pull off whatever it is. Can't wait to see the pics whe it's done!

[Victor R.]

Woohoo! Very cool!

As for how I'll use it, there are so many wonderful pieces from which to choose, it's difficult to decide; but I have been contemplating pole arms, recently, so that may be the way I go.

Thanks to Nathan for sponsoring this contest, and to the myArmoury team for providing a site that allows arms & armour geeks (or, would "Medieval Aficionados" be more PC? ) to hang out, learn, teach and share the cool stuff they've acquired or encountered, and to the craftsmen that provide us with the objects of our historic infatuations.

Now, to contact to good folks at A&A about improving my kit...

[Scott Hrouda]

From one "Medieval Aficionado" to two very lucky "Medieval Aficionados":

Have fun shopping and let us know what you decide on!

(I had my sights set on the A&A Aunlaz Dagger had I won.)

<edit> I just read Craig's post on the Limited Edition Pole Hammers . What an awesome buy!

[Jean Thibodeau]

Congratulations J.D. and Victor and it will be fun to see what you buy/design with A & A.

Victor: The Pole Hammers do deserve consideration unless there is something you want more as a polearm

J.D. looking forward to learning what sword you are planning to have made that is almost never seen made.

[Victor R.]

Jean - I saw the pole hammers this morning - definitely in the running.

I'm trying to fill a gap in a late XIVth era kit, and don't know if they're a little late for that. I've sent a note to Mr. Johnson explaining what I'm going for from an era/level/background, and seeing what he thinks.

If I were focused on the late XVth kit I have partially built, I'd definitely go with the pole hammer. Might anyway (no rule that says I can't put two items on order ), just a matter of convincing myself that the finances can go there.


I'll post when I've made a final decision.

[Nathan Robinson]

[J.D. Crawford]

[Steve Grisetti]

Congratulations to both of the lucky winners

[Jean Thibodeau]

And lets not forget to thank Nathan for making these prizes available using his own money.

[Addison C. de Lisle]

Congratulations guys! I can't wait to hear about what you do with the money! Thanks also to Nathan for sponsoring this great contest.

[Chad Arnow]

I'm glad to see one of the winners (and more folks in general) considering custom projects with A&A. Their production swords are great, of course, but we've also seen a number of mind-blowing custom pieces from them in the last couple of years. Their custom stuff is very competitively priced and people might be surprised at the wait times.

I actually have a custom dagger on order from them. As many folks know, I have several custom daggers from other makers. The A&A piece should be the least expensive (or close to it) of all my custom daggers when all's said and done.

(No, you're not getting any more details about my project right now )

[Jason Elrod]

I agree with Chad. A&A does fantastic custom work at very reasonable prices.

I have a custom Schloss Erbach and Halberd already and have another custom Sword and Messer on order.

The great thing about A&A is that they can use their production pieces to help lessen the cost of a custom sword. For instance on my Erbach, Craig used a custom blade to match the original more closely but used the Pommel and Guard from the production Erbach sword to help keep cost down.

Not to be over looked is Chris, Craig and crews access to original swords through their relationship with the Oakeshott Institute. The Schloss Erbach is in that collection.

They have handled the originals. They have studied the antiques. They know what it takes to make a great historically accurate sword.