myArmoury.com - Contest: Spearheading Donations

Posts: 11,553 Location: San Francisco

Sun 16 Aug, 2009 11:58 pm

Contest: Spearheading Donations

Spearheading Donations for myArmoury.com!

myArmoury.com is in the midst of a member-initiated donation drive to help me with the cost of running this place. So far, the outcome has been pretty successful. There hasn't been a whole lot of donors, but I'm thankful for the help that has put into the pot already.

The money will be used to offset this year's server hosting costs (only one of my many expenses related to running this site). As of this year, the site now sits on a dedicated server. The performance of the site is no longer an issue, but with that benefit comes a higher cost. Your donations help offset that cost for me.

Prolific myArmoury.com member Jean Thibodeau spearheaded this year's donation drive and has put his money where his mouth is. He is personally sponsoring this contest to entice others to donate to the site. He's doing this out of the kindness of his heart and out of the cash in his pockets.

Jean has purchased a Custom Spearhead from Michael Pikula of Volund Forge that will be given away to one lucky winner!

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Click for full-sized photographs

The overall length is 13 3/4" with a blade length of 9" and it weights 1 pound, 5 ounces.

The spearhead is really beautifully done. You can mount it onto a shaft or leave it in its custom-created wooden case for an equally fantastic presentation. Very nice!

Jean wants to encourage first-time donors so we're going to make the contest terms very simple.

HOW TO ENTER:

Ensure you're a registered member of myArmoury.com
Members who have donated $10 US or more to our donation drive since July 1, 2009 are eligible for this drawing. If you've already donated or you donate before the contest closes, you'll be entered.
Any members who have Purchased a Membership Plan on or after July 1, 2009 will also be automatically entered.

That's it! You're done!

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Entrants must be made prior to contest close on Monday Sep 14, 2009 at Midnight PST. All participants will be entered into a drawing and the winning name will be randomly selected later that same day.

Domestic shipping charges are included with the winning prize, but international winners will be required to pay for shipping.

Thanks goes out to everybody who has given to this site. Good luck to everyone!!

Contest-specific rules and limitations:

You must be a registered member of myArmoury.com. Donations must be made while logged-in
myArmoury.com moderators and Team Members are eligible to win since they have been amongst the most generous with their donations
Shipping charges are included for winners located in the continental US
Should the winning entrant choose not to accept the prize, another winner will be selected
Those who have donated anonymously will be given the opportunity to accept the prize but must agree to have a public announcement made regarding the contest win
The contributed amounts will never be revealed to the public by myArmoury.com. Contest entrants can choose for themselves if they wish to share this with the community

Please read our detailed Rules and Limitations document for complete information and our disclaimer.

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Arne Focke

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Posts: 204 Location: near Munich, Germany

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 1:00 am

Wow, thanks Jean!
What a great prize!

And of course many thanks to Nathan for running this site.

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Scott Kowalski

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Posts: 818 Location: Oak Lawn, IL USA

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 5:23 am

Simply smashing Jean! That would have been a better joke if this were an impact weapon mind you. Though this still does not let you off the hook in regards to buying a digital camera so you can pictures of your newest items.

Scott

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 7:08 am

Arne Focke wrote:

Wow, thanks Jean!
What a great prize!

And of course many thanks to Nathan for running this site.

And yes the spear is great and I bought one for myself as you probably all know if you read all the new Topics Posts.
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=16032&start=40

I've been thinking of donating something for the current fund drive for a while and the availability of Michael's spear heads in" Multiple " quantities was something that permitted me to donate something and have one like it for myself: I must admit that this way I was sure to have one and it's easier giving a very " desirable " object when one has it's twin in hand one might say.

I also considered this a good way to help Michael Pikula as I think he is an amazing new, to us, maker ( I assume he has been doing this for a while, as one doesn't get this good without a lot of practice ).

At his currently very low prices I could afford to buy two spear heads and still feel like I was getting a bargain. ;) :D

So, two birds with one stone: A nice prize for the " myArmoury " fund drive and helping a maker with cash and good P.R.

I am getting something out of it as giving something does make me feel good and it's sort of fun ! So it's not a completely unselfish thing ..... yes, giving is a reward in itself.

Now, this is a small thing compared to the hundreds of hours and money out of pocket that Nathan puts in to keep this place going every year: As he mentioned, he just upgraded to a dedicated to " only this site server " and this isn't free for him and with all the unpaid work he puts in he should at least have out of pocket cost paid by the numerous people who get a lot out of this site: I know that if this place ceased to exist I would " LOSE " something very valuable to me on many levels, from what I learn here to the people I have had the pleasure to have met here and many of which I can consider friends.

Anyway, " I' l be back " ( As said by the TERMINATOR ) with frequent " BUMPS " and encouragement's to donate. ;) :p :cool: I'm not called " VERBOSE " for nothing. ;) :cool:

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Tim Lison

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Posts: 1,606 Location: Chicago, Illinois

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 8:55 am

What a great giveaway! Jean is THE MAN! That spearhead looks really nice, Michael Pikula's work is great and this seems like no exception!

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Roger Hooper

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Posts: 4,393 Location: Northern California

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 6:28 pm

When I heard about this contest, I said to myself, I need a sword not a spearhead. But after looking at it, I have to say - I WANT IT!!

What diameter shaft will it take?

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Nathan Robinson

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Posts: 11,553 Location: San Francisco

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 6:35 pm

Roger Hooper wrote:

When I heard about this contest, I said to myself, I need a sword not a spearhead. But after looking at it, I have to say - I WANT IT!!

It's really awesome to be honest, Roger. I'm super impressed with it.

The sockets are 1" in size. Regarding haft-sized, read Jean's post about his.

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Addison C. de Lisle

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Posts: 614 Location: South Carolina

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 7:00 pm

Jean - I'm impressed with your generosity. It's a beautiful spearhead and it must have been a wrench giving it up.

This site really is great, both in terms of content and supporting community, which is why it consistently earns my donation. Keep up the excellent work!

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Matthew G.M. Korenkiewicz

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Posts: 864 Location: Michigan, USA

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 7:11 pm

Way to go Mr. T. Nothing like adding more enthusiasm to this drive to keep
myArmoury in the soup !

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 7:11 pm

Roger Hooper wrote:

When I heard about this contest, I said to myself, I need a sword not a spearhead. But after looking at it, I have to say - I WANT IT!!

What diameter shaft will it take?

Well, the inside diameter of the socket is just a hair under 1" on mine and my aft is a bit over 1 1/8" in diameter: I reduced the aft to 1" and carved/sanded the tip into a cone to fit about 3" into the socket.

The socket outside diameter is a bit over 1 1/4" depending if one measures flat to flat or corner to corner on the octagonal socket.

Sharpened the head a bit using a diamond hone a a couple of passes: It was already very sharp as received but now it's paper cutting sharp. The steel feel very hard and glasslike even with a diamond hone. It,s also L6 steel which is near unbreakable. Al bevel lines are perfect etc ..... I already mentioned this in the other threads about Michael's spears and the one on my custom project Partisan/Lugged Spear.

Bottom line this spear and my spear are above and beyond my already high expectations in quality of materials and workmanship as well as great aesthetics and I would recommend that anyone wanting a first class spear to order one from Michael as his reputation for quality as well as his prices can only grow in the future.

If you have seen his work on swords to seaxs to spear heads, including folded steel on other Topics threads about his work I think he is one of the first people I would go to for a custom project. ( Oh, and I have already for my partisan :D ).

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 7:17 pm

Addison C. de Lisle wrote:

Jean It's a beautiful spearhead and it must have been a wrench giving it up.

Well actually NO because I made a point of getting one almost the same for myself because it would have hurt donating one that I didn't already have a twin of. ;) :p :cool:

So I didn't have any " wrenching " or any giving anything up. ;) :D

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Mon 17 Aug, 2009 8:30 pm

Note that the spear head looks much smaller in pics than it is when in hand.

Also as Nathan mentioned one can mount it but one could just as easily display it in it's box and it's a really neat box. :D

We are getting close to half way to the objective. :cool:

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Carl W.

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Posts: 182 Location: usa

Tue 18 Aug, 2009 3:09 am

Jean - well done. Gave me good reason to click now rather than continue to be "lazy" :-)
Easy to call $5 of donation a raffle ticket.

Nathan - thank you very much for running this site.

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Tue 18 Aug, 2009 9:36 pm

Carl W. wrote:

Jean - well done. Gave me good reason to click now rather than continue to be "lazy" :-)
Easy to call $5 of donation a raffle ticket.

Nathan - thank you very much for running this site.

Good and appreciated but you might consider giving another $5 before the end of the fund drive so that you are eligeable to win the spear head: I wouldn't want you to miss out having a chance at it. ;)

Oh, and we are over the half way point. :cool:

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Maurizio D'Angelo

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Posts: 649 Location: Italy

Wed 19 Aug, 2009 3:38 am

Jean thanks for your generosity.
I am proposing to the Vatican, Mr. Jean Thibodeau "Holy" immediately. :eek:
I Joke. :p ;)
ciao
Maurizio

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Wed 19 Aug, 2009 1:47 pm

Maurizio D'Angelo wrote:

Jean thanks for your generosity.
I am proposing to the Vatican, Mr. Jean Thibodeau "Holy" immediately. :eek:
I Joke. :p ;)
ciao
Maurizio

Thanks I'll accept a nice Dukedom, a Palace, a thousand pounds of gold and a few Swiss guards suitable to my high social rank. ;) :p ( Joking also, obviously. :cool: )

Donations seem to be rolling in and I would encourage people making posts letting others know why they liked this site enough to want to donate:

1) This would be fun and maybe also how they found this site in the first place and when they decided it was worth while coming back often to read or post to Topics.

2) This would be much more interesting and a better way to keep bumping the Donation threads up than just " ME " repeating myself or desperately trying to find something original to say .... well, write. ;)

3) Oh ........ and " BUMP " ...... ;) :p :lol: :cool:

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Chad Arnow

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Posts: 9,534 Location: Dayton, OH

Wed 19 Aug, 2009 2:19 pm

Jean Thibodeau wrote:

1) This would be fun and maybe also how they found this site in the first place and when they decided it was worth while coming back often to read or post to Topics.

I was on the Highlander Sword Shopper's guide and Netsword back when they were more active. Then came Swordforum. I met a bunch of cool people there. Through various political things not worth going into, many of those cool people left SFI of their own free will (or not). Nathan had started this site to show off his collection (it was literally "his" armoury). He and some of the non-SFI people decided to expand the site, adding articles, reviews, photo albums, and discussion forums.

Nathan knew me from the SFI days and invited me to participate here before it was even public. I and some of the early folks tested the forums and tried to get bugs worked out before it went public. I'm user #9 on the memberlist (when sorted by join date). :)

I stuck around because I like the people, the great exchanges of info, and the culture that was created and nurtured here. Over the years, Nathan asked me to become more involved. I submitted some reviews, then joined the myArmoury team, and later took on moderating and other duties and here we are 6 years later. :)

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Maurizio D'Angelo

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Posts: 649 Location: Italy

Wed 19 Aug, 2009 6:35 pm

Chad Arnow wrote:

I stuck around because I like the people, the great exchanges of info, and the culture that was created and nurtured here. Over the years, Nathan asked me to become more involved. I submitted some reviews, then joined the myArmoury team, and later took on moderating and other duties and here we are 6 years later. :)

I think that your work, we do not pass unnoticed.
Thanks to you all, to keep this site as is. :)
Maurizio

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Bjorn Hagstrom

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Posts: 355 Location: Höör, Skane

Thu 20 Aug, 2009 12:27 am

I took the opportunity to upgrade myself to "Benefactor" to contribute a little more continously. If counting the time I spend here and the insights and information I get it is a real bargain!

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Jean Thibodeau

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Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada

Thu 20 Aug, 2009 9:47 pm

Chad Arnow wrote:

Jean Thibodeau wrote:

1) This would be fun and maybe also how they found this site in the first place and when they decided it was worth while coming back often to read or post to Topics.

I was on the Highlander Sword Shopper's guide and Netsword back when they were more active. Then came Swordforum. I met a bunch of cool people there. Through various political things not worth going into, many of those cool people left SFI of their own free will (or not). Nathan had started this site to show off his collection (it was literally "his" armoury). He and some of the non-SFI people decided to expand the site, adding articles, reviews, photo albums, and discussion forums.

Nathan knew me from the SFI days and invited me to participate here before it was even public. I and some of the early folks tested the forums and tried to get bugs worked out before it went public. I'm user #9 on the memberlist (when sorted by join date). :)

I stuck around because I like the people, the great exchanges of info, and the culture that was created and nurtured here. Over the years, Nathan asked me to become more involved. I submitted some reviews, then joined the myArmoury team, and later took on moderating and other duties and here we are 6 years later. :)

The funny thing is that I can't remember exactly how I found this site the first time. :eek: I do remember finding it about 6 months before I joined ( Lurked for those first 6 months ).

Now often we don't remember these things because one had no idea at the time that the " event " would have a lot of meaning way down the line and when it did become important the memory of how one found the site has faded away.

Now, at the time the site that I went to the most was the Albion site and I may have seen a link there to " myArmoury " or a customer review/feedback mentioning " myArmoury " . :?: :?: :?:

I could also have been just randomly browsing for historical weapon sites ........ :wtf: ;) :D

Now, what I am sure of is that when I found this site I immediately put it in my " BOOKMARKS " on my MAC and it's been at the top of my list of bookmarks. ;) :D

Oh, $1810 dollars so we are over 2/3 of the way to the objective but there is only 3 weeks left to go before the end of the Fund Drive and it would be nice to have as many people as possible contributing/helping in paying for the site and beat lasts years number of contributors.

Assuming we reach the objective I can sigh a little breath of relief but if we go over the objective it does mean a bit of spending room for unexpected expenses and give Nathan a little extra for contest prizes or enhancements to the site and a reserve for paying the next years hosting costs that might go up. ( These things never get cheaper. ;) :p :lol: ).

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