[Russ Ellis]

So oddly I haven't got much in the way of sword related email in a month or so. That's fairly unusual, even since the economic meltdown business has been reasonably steady. So I got to wondering if there was something wrong with the email, and indeed it turned out there was. My apologies for not returning any emails that were sent, this was not a deliberate oversight or policy on my part. Everything should be fixed up now!

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

Do you receive e-mails on all kinds of swords everyday, Russ?

[Russ Ellis]

Not every day, but I do get queries about all sorts of interesting things.

Unlike my historical antecedents I have to be able to try my hand at pretty much any sort of scabbard in any time period on any given day. Today I might be doing a rubberized saya for a modernized tac-tana, tomorrow might be a Viking style scabbard for one of Albion's offerings, the day after that I might be building a scabbard for an antique kukri and so forth.

You would be surprised what kinds of blades people have out there, and who needs scabbards and what sort of ideas they have and what sort of prices they expect to pay...