There’s been some discussion on the Lochac Archers list about the thickness of Blunts and what the Tolerance on that thickness should be.  So archers would like to be able to use 11/32nds of an inch shafts for their Combat Arrows, and others just want a definitive rulling made on that actual thickness and variances.   There was also Discussion on Alternative means of ruling, however such a major change in the ruling would certainly greatly change surprize Arrow inspections.

One of my issues with arrow testing is that at 2 wars I have been to in the last year, Marshals have insisted on having every arrow inspected for width or length.  Personally I think this is a little excessive.  For arrows to be effective some consistance needs to be maintained…  and an Archer making his or her own arrows won’t purposely make arrows out of spec, as they would be fully aware of the fact that they can be bounced at any point.  An arrow that is out of spec, is likely to only just be out of spec, by a small amount, certainly not enough to make unsafe, as there should be a huge safety margin.  

The idea of the rules is to provide a guide to constucting your arrows, not a means by which to ban them.  When the rules say that you should use 5/16th’s or 8mm shafts should be used, that means that if you by those sized shafts then you have done the right thing…  any variance in the shaft diameter should be within the manufacturers tolerance, however if one arrow falls out of that tolerance, should it be removed from the field?  I don’t think so…  I think it should be marked…  I think it should be monitored more thoroughly than all the rest… And if complaints are made about it then it should be removed.  If it’s proven that a batch of arrows are out of tolerance, then the batch should be removed and the maker of the arrows questioned as to what wood was purchased. 

Why do I think that single arrows shouldn’t be removed?  Because variances in weight and spine can be so high as to make a greater differance in the Ouch Factor and safety of the arrows.  If an arrow is marked as a known issue, and people start noticing that that arrow is hitting harder, then sure, remove it.  If the owner is smart, he’ll remove it himself.  At about $3-$4 the cost of Combat arrows are too high to arbitrarily be bouncing arrows here there and everywhere just because they are slightly too thick or thin.  Archers go through enough arrows each war through normal use than to have slightly out of tolerance arrows bounced through some Marshalls insistance that

Yes, those of you that know how I think will see that something dirty this way thinks…   Others will just see it as a weird segway into this current post.

I love metal…  and my love of Metal lead me to discover this link.

http://www.lostcrafts.com/Farm/Blacksmithing-Main.html

Hope it helps..

Meh, this is old news… a whole 12 hours old by now… But yes, for those of you who are so desperate to read the final installment of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”, just head over to your favourite Torrent site, and search for it. I took a look at what’s on offer only to find that it’s basically photographed open spread pages on the book, which would make reading it difficult. I’m guessing though that someone is likely to post a text version of it within the next few days. Keep an eye out… Or not, if you are a purist. ;)

I suspect this will have zero impact on the money that will be made from this book, as the whole phenomonon has spriralled totally out of control. The books are likely to only pull in a miniscule fraction of the total income from franchise and advertising revenue. That said, even if this does have an effect on book sales, it’s likely to be small, as those that are likely to download it are either going to buy the book anyway, or are the type of people that borrow friends copies, and never buy the book anyway.

I haven’t posted for a while because I have been flat out either with doing stuff for SCA related things, or spending time with friends… This is all very well, I like to get things done, but I can also be very lazy, so having other people guide me on how I spend my time is actually a good thing, as long as they don’t openly use me, or openly make me aware of being used. ;)

At May crown I was approuched by someone asking if I would quote for making them Pewter tokens for an event they are running. I said “No need to quote, you buy the pewter, and I’ll offer my time and skills for free.” I then asked for a drawing or a sketch of a design. To cut a long story short… On monday I caught up with this person, who told me they had a design on their computer, to which my reply was a casual “Cool! Email it through to me”, at which they snapped at me, telling me they have been asking me to come down to their place and discuss it for 6 weeks, and that if I was going to be difficult then they can find someone else to do it…

Now, to be honest, they had been trying to get me down to their place, and to be more honest… I have been avoiding that trip… Why? Because of two things… Firstly I don’t like being made aware that I’m going out of my way to help someone, and secondly becuase I didn’t really have the time or inclination. Another factor was that I didn’t want to get dragged into this event more than I had previously offered.

That said… I still think it’s rather bad taste to snap at someone offering you a favour because they aren’t willing to totally give of their time to make it happen. Especially when all that I was requesting was a simple email outlining the details of what they wanted before I invested too much time or effort in trying to help.

Suffice to say… I won’t be making those tokens, and I now also won’t be helping out with or possibly even be attending the event in question. Am I wrong?