[SCA-AS] Huzzah/Vivat?

[Haraldr Bassi (sca-as)]

rmhowe wrote:
> Haraldr Bassi (sca-as) wrote:

> I like the name.
> My first instinct was to use Biarathravn or Black Raven, however I decided
> no one could pronounce it.  Being a Craftsman full time and having the only
> availble armory for 180 miles [and mine was $.50 for electricity only] I 
> decided
> on Malleus as my last name.  Hammer if you will.  Now our best friend has
> renamed his persona as .........  Hammerson.  Which is a compliment I 
> suppose.

Indeed...

> Thought of him as a brother for 15 years I think, despite the 22 year 
> age difference.
> And I am tiny compared to him currently.  I'm 6'3" and average 300 
> although my
> weight is generally distributed.  My best friends each have over a 
> hundred pounds
> on me.   Anyway, was a bit chagrined when he once referred to us as like 
> his benign
> grandparents.  Jeez, I am just old enough to be his father but not a 
> grandfather.

I am officially old enough to be a grandfather as both of our kids are 
well older than both my wife and I were when we had our first. Luckily 
they have so far proven to have been able to learn from their parents 
silliness and are managing their biology better.

> We have no kids of our own.  Wasn't a good idea heredity wise.
> My device is a hammer horizontal before a divider between three bezants 
> in the
> corners on a black field.  For about 12 years there we merchanted so the 
> three
> gold balls were appropriate.

Yeah... mine is a simple is a blue field, white base and on the field is 
a double headed viking ship in red and white vertical stripes.

> 
>>> Still teaching?
>>
>> Haven't missed teaching at a Pennsic in years. But I teach woodworking
>> stuff... wish I could find Geir Bassi myself as I'd like to thank him
>> for the book.
> 
> Are you aware Ragnar at http://www.ragweedforge.com/ has some nice good
> carbon bearded axes and adzes for sale made after the Mastermyr Find tools?
> I have some and am quite pleased with them.  Very sharp indeed.
> There are two grades, specify the higher carbon. I also asked for the most
> curved adze blade he had.  They came with highly polished edges.
> I like doing business with Ragnar.  Very reasonable chap. Sells good 
> quality.

I never miss stopping in at Ragnar's. Usually my wife gets real upset at 
how much time I spend just sitting and chatting with him. I have a full 
set of the high carbon steel bearded axe, regular axe and both the 
straight and curved adzes. I am considering a second bearded axe. He 
polished up the edges with extra care before sending our shipment to us 
as he knew from previous history with me that I was a tool user not a 
collector. I first met Ragnar at least 12 years ago when I had a load of 
horse hides that I was schlepping around to various events. This was 
back before AEthelmearc went kingdom. I was out at a college of the 
three ravens in Thescore and ended up with a barter with him for all the 
furs I had out there. He later ended up buying and bartering for the 
rest of them. I had two pallet loads of the silly things :) My dad found 
them at a garage sale and I bought the whole load for a pittance and 
made a nice turn on the investment and wasn't selling them for more than 
a buck a square foot or so.

> Totally honest in my experience of many purchases.  Has Mora knives,
> hooked knives, and a nice little straight drawknife too.
> Fancy knives and throwing axes if you like too.
> Was selling the knife designed at the Viking Ship Museum.
> A LOT of reenactors have that one, me too.

Have several of the ship knives including a spare or two for the future. 
  The whole household carries them. Marvelous knives. I also have one of 
the old Frost belt knives he was selling way back when. It's my day to 
day utility knife and gets sharpened occasionally. They are both 
wonderful knives. I loved that little red handled straight draw knife 
that I bought a second so I could have one in my travel box and one on 
my bench. An amazing little beast. Though I prefer a full size for 
hawking off rapidly. That little thing can't be beat for detail draw work.

> 
> I have a few actual medieval axes I have bought.
> One is Slavic, one is the generic 1500 year plus pattern and one
> is a good deal like the boat building axes in the Bayeaux tapestry
> only the bottom half of the blade is broken off below the eye.

Sweet... I've been thinking of a viking age boat builders axe but can 
only find it from one or two suppliers and haven't had the spare few 
hundred to toss at it and hope that it will be a user.

> 
> I have close to two dozen actual knives from late Roman times to the
> late Renaissance [folders].  Two I have taken a very fine diamond
> hone to and carefully removed the rust.
>  One is capable of being shaved with.  The back of
> one on both sides of one has a medieval greek or cyrillic inscription
> etched in above a line of triangles.  Upon first seeing some details under
> some rust I thought it might be one of the Polish decorated knives
> done in the false damascus manner.   The other has three yellow dots
> clean through the blade.  The iron in this one is not as good quality
> and has a grey grainy texture to it.  Both were heavily rusted when
> I began.

That sounds like fun... some of that old steel is amazing.

Feel free to adopt me :)

Haraldr