[MR] want some inexpensive armour?

[David Wendelken]

Vladimir and I had someone take us up on our offer to help them build
armour today.

He showed up this afternoon and left about 4 or so hours later.

He learned how to cut out the metal for a set of knee cops and lames,
file them down, dish them out and shape them, and rivet them together.  

He left with all his metal pieces cut out, the rivets and washers he
will need, and a darn good start on the first knee cop.
Plus a stump for dishing the metal in and leather straps to hold them on
when he's done.

It cost him $12 and some time.  Plus it will cost him $6 or so for the
buckles, which we don't keep lying around.

Simple tools, simple techniques, inexpensive steel armour.
Pretty much anyone can do it!  He got a whopping 10 minutes of
instruction, which should give you an indication of how easy it is.

If you want to, you can make an entire harness of armour for less than
$100!
And you don't even have to do it all at once, you can do it a piece at a
time.

Here's our deal for making armour in our shop:

1) We teach you what you need to know in order to make functional,
presentable armour.
(Not masterwork armour!)  That takes about 10 to 20 minutes of time on
our part, so it's not an imposition for us!

2) Here is what it costs you, besides your time:

a) Pay for the materials and a few dollars to cover consumables and wear
and tear, or

b) Make two of everything and give us one to sell for the cost of the
materials.

Incidentally, if you acquire some cheap tools, you can do most of the
work at your home instead of in our shop, if that's more convenient for
you.  Here are the tools.  Starred * items are used during the most
time-consuming portion of the armour making, so those would be the ones
to get first to enable you to do the most work at your home:

1) *ballpean hammer.
2) *rubber or rawhide mallet (optional).
3) drill and metal bits.
4) *metal file.
5) *a wooden stump (which we will supply if you need us to!)
6) a piece of scrap metal to use as a poor man's anvil.
7) clamps or screws and bolts (optional).
8) awl.
9) leather needle.
10) waxed linen thread.

Some of you have asked, "Why don't you and Vladimir do an armour making
day at your house and invite everyone to come over at the same time?"
Because we have a really small shop and more than three people in it
just get in each other's way.
We have one set of tools, so a group of folks would spend most of their
time watching someone else make armour - which is not the most exciting
of pursuits.

Do you have the time to make your own armour, a piece at a time?  
Maybe you have a friend with more money and less time?
Make two sets and have your friend pay material costs for both.  He'll
still save gobs of money and you'll get a free set of armor!

We hope more of you will take us up on our offer and equip yourselves or
your friends with home-made, inexpensive armour!
It's a lot more fun to tell your friends you made your armor rather than
bought it!

Andras Salamandra
Vladimir Davidovitch
(Fayetteville, NC)