The guys from Ollin sword design and myself had a great time last fall and decided that we would like to do it again. After tossing around dates we came up with June 16. So I would like to invite anyone who can to my place here in South Bend Indiana. We are looking for a start time around one that afternoon. I'm sure that we will have some good discussions, cutting, javelin throwing, and more. Mark from Ollin will for sure be coming down and brining some of their stuff. I may have a forge up and going by then, so I may some some new little things from that going on.

Driving directions are on my website. I will try to keep any updates about it posted here as well as on my site.
http://www.ironagearmoury.com/Gathering.htm

Shane Allee

Shane,

You might want to consider putting up a pole option on this thread. Chad convinced me to finally do it on one of mine and I have to admit he was right, it does make things easier to track.

I'll have to check my calendar at work.

I don't want to sound stupid here, but "What is a (pole option)"?


Hello Shane, Hi Joe, I sure had a great time last October and my plans are most certainly to attend your gracious inventation on June 16th! I will bring all 12 of my high end swords and my "cutting" polearms and both spears, one of which is a 16 inch by 2 1/4 inch hewing spear, also including my forthcoming Arms & Armor Sparth Axe, which I am rather excited about! I've wanted to acquire this polearm for 2 years now. I ordered mine with a 65 inch haft instead of the standard 53 inch haft and maybe I can get some feedback and advice from others attending as to the length of the haft that I ordered?
Sure was fun at Shane's October Cutting Fest and this promises to be even better since the weather will be much warmer! I am really looking forward to this and seeing as many that can show up from the October gathering and also meeting anyone who attends that was not there at the last one!

I will bring lot's of plastic jugs too!

Thanks So Much Shane!

Bob

Thanks for putting the event registration up for me Chad. I wanted to look into doing it that way and ended up getting rushed a bit while I was posting and didn't have a chance.

Hope that you can make it up again Joe.

Glad that you will be able to make it Bob.

I will be making a new cutting stand and javelin target, so those should be much better this time. Not that there was anything too much wrong with the javelin target, but my new pilum style chuckers have busted it to pieces. If I get the forge up in time I'd like to make some other style of javelins as well.

Shane

I should have my forge up and running by then, but I'm not sure if I'll have all that much time to make new javelins and such. Should have some butt spikes done for the pila so that they will balance more properly.

Shane

Just over a week to go so I wanted to bring this back up for people to see. The forge is up and running, most likely at some point during the day we'll fire it up and mess around a bit with it. Still a lot to be ready by then, but I'm working franticly getting things finished. Should just be getting started on a new hilt and Nate is coming up for a few days to start on one as well, so there should be some in-progress to see as well as plenty of finished swords. Mark is going to be here for awhile so I'm not even sure what kind of things we will be into.

Shane

I'm going to be doing a digital government summit right up to the day before.

Not going to be able to make it this time.

That is too bad Joe, we were looking forward to seeing you again. Maybe this fall...

Shane

Shane, I will be there, bringing my van because I have so many plastic jugs! I don't know how many I have,
but there is a whole Lot of them :!: I will bring all my swords and a few choice polearms too.
I have a few books that I think would be of interest, so I will bring them as well. I am really looking forward to this Saturday!

Bob

Really lookiing forward to this, had some trouble with my beater van. If I elect not to bring the van, I will fit as many plastic jugs as I can cram into the car. I have sport mirrors, so I can pile them up in the interior and trunk. If I bring the van, it's a full size beater conversion van that I use for work, and I can easily fit everything into it. I have lots and lots of plastic jugs :!:
I've also got some wood I can bring to bash the hell out of too!
I have axes, mace, flail, warhammers, unfortunately my Sparth Axe was not ready in time and should be shipped by the end of next week. Ah well, such is life. But I do have a Danish War Axe, Hungarian Axe, a few Viking Axes, a Windlass Knightly Poleaxe, Viking Hewing Spear and an Arms & Armor 12th Century Saxon Spear.
This is going to be a Blast! :lol:

Bob

It looks like it is just going to be a few of us, but as Bob said I'm sure it will be a blast. The weather forecast looks good even. Oh yeah bring what you can, but make sure not to overdo yourself.

Shane

Traveling in car instead, will fit all the jugs I can, which should be a whole lot, will have the car packed with jugs!
Where there is a Will, there is a Way!
Should have all high end swords and polearms too!

Bob

Every last jug, sword, polearm and book fit into the car! With room to spare and this is a 2002 Mitsubishi Gallant :lol:
3 Giant contractor garbage bags full of jugs, plus another bag's worth of loose jugs!

Gonna Have a Blast!

Sir Robert II

"The Knight of Madness"

I had a really great time once again at Shane Allee's Sword Nut Gathering :!: Such a nice group of people with whom I had several wonderful conversations. I got to see and handle the first and "scrapped" (because of the heat treaters and NOT Mark) blade that was made for Jean, "Man is that thing a BEAST!!!!!!!!" It's a Godzilla one hander! I would describe it as a fullered Edward III Sword on Anabolic Steroids :!: I mean that sword is HUGE!! The legendary giant of a man
"William Wallace" (said to be between 6' 10" and 7' 1" by some historical references) would have Loved this Monster :!:

Blew My Socks Off!

Sincerely,

Sir Robert Burns (Artist cousin Jim Conahans title of me at bottom of my 1 and only copy of the painting of me.)

"The Knight of Madness" (How I sign my emails to personal friends :lol: )

Your going to love that "Monster" Jean :!: Easily the biggest one hander I have ever come across!
I had my first encounter with pool noodles yesterday, and I was impressed at how hard they are to cut as compared to plastic jugs of water.
I did it again! Sliced right through a 4 gallon thicker plastic jug full of water with my Arms & Armor "Italian Three Ring Rapier". Cut the same jug clean in half twice! I also got to try Mark's (Ollin Blades) fantasy sword on a jug and cut the same jug all the way through about 6 times. Wow did that sword Cut!!
I brought my Arms & Armor Nordland axes and did double throughs (left and right handed) at a really great target Shane made of cardboard, about 5 inches thick, 3 and a half feet wide and four foot something tall (estimates). I mean this target was 5 inches thick of solid cardboard. I even through and stuck my Windlass Coustile Dagger "17 inch blade" into it!
Although it was hot, in the mid 90s it seemed, I had such a good time that the heat did not bother me.

Though it was a small gathering, nonetheless, it was a wonderful time for me!

Bob

Well, last year it was Joe Fults who accidently did a minor scuff on my Highland Claymore, came to me unsolicited and showed it to me, it was No Big Deal!
This year it was Nathan Bell with a scuff to the Hungarian Axe, who came to me and pointed out the minor scuff, unsolicited, it was No Big Deal!
Both were easy to buff out. But this is not my point!

My "Point" is, the High Caliber of Character! The integrity of honesty and Damn Nice Guys :!:
I've said it several times before and I will say it again. This hobby seems to attract people of a much higher caliber in character than in other social circles!
Incidently likewise, this kind of honesty is one of "My" principles too!

Yep, I've met some mighty Fine and Exceptional people in this biggest love of my lifetime Interest and Hobby of Passion :!:

Most Sincerely!

Bob

Very glad to have you come again Bob. How is the hand doing? It was a warm one, but at least there was a breeze to help.
Finally got some pictures up on the website today although I haven't had much time to put captions with them. We did get one where you can see Bob going to get his dagger in the target. Also have one where he took off top of a bottle with one of his axes he threw at it.

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Turns out this was the closest thing that we got of a group shot... of course Nate has his back to the camera. *G*

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Nate and I both got way into cutting bottles and noodles with one of my spears.

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Still have a few more that I might add to the site later, but I'll probably try to get some captions on what I have first.
http://www.ironagearmoury.com/Gathering.htm

Shane

That last one with the spear going through the bottle is nice!!!