Ide's of March Event held by Iron Oak

Well I really enjoyed the Iron Oak event. It was the first tourney style event that I had attended in 2 years, other than Stormvale’s events. I have been to peaceful events and melee/war events but no tourneys since another Iron Oak event Toy’s for Tot’s.
The event had 11 fighters in total and was run as a Bear Pit style tourney, with wounds retained between bouts. In a Bear Pit you continue to fight until defeated and then you go to the back of the line and wait your turn to fight again. The winner was determined by points, you received one point for each bout you entered and one point for each win. The fighting started before noon and ended at 2:45. The winner of the tourney had 72 or 78 points, I could not hear well as it was being announced ( I ended up with 28 ). I think the most points I accumulated at one time was 7 points. That would be 3 wins in a row and then a loss. I believe by points I ended up 5th out of the 11 fighters.

I made it through most of the tourney but had run out of steam and sat out the last half hour. I had gotten to the point that I couldn’t block fast enough and had started falling prey to one-shots (One-shot is when your opponent is able to hit so fast or fake you out enough to hit you with his/her first blow.) While resting enough other fighters had also ran out of steam that Angus, the Baron of Northwoods called for the tourney to end in 20 minutes. I had taken off about half my armor and rather than suit up again, I let the time run out on the event. I used sword and shield for the first half of the tourney but as I tired I switched to using two swords (Florentine). Several other fighters changed weapons as the tourney progressed. Towards the end Angus changed to polearm and I was not able to kill him while he used that weapon. I had slowed enough that I was able to chase him around and even get in a couple wounds but not to kill.
Also attending the event from Stormvale was:
Ervon (fighting as well)
Eron
Laura’s Daughter
Bronwyn
Sylvia
Paul, Sylvia’s son'

Gavin of Blackwood
Desi

Dante

It felt a little like old home week, with many past Stormvalers in attendance including:
Kvelf-ulfr
Morgaine
Annanda the Fiery
Angus Lundy

I had thought about staying for feast but was tired enough that I just headed home at about 4:30pm and took a nap when I got home.
All in all a good event and I was happy that I was not so rusty that I embarrassed myself fighting.

Attending events in Canada

Over the years, I have attended many events in Canada and I have never had a problem crossing over the border for an event. I did once have a problem and was stopped and searched when going over to attend a fighting practice. I think the difference was, for events I have always been prepared (see my list below) and for the fighting practice it was a bit spur of the moment and I was not even sure where I was going. I only had a street name and the fact that I would notice SCA fighting equipment when I “got” there.

Try telling a border guard your only going to be in the country for a couple hours and not really sure where but will be driving around looking for friends. That is what got me searched. I was afraid they were going to start taking my car apart but they stopped at that point it was completely empty and let me go. It was pretty funny later….As I was pulling armor out of my duffle bag they would ask me what it was and what it was for. I ended up wearing about ¾ of my armor and giving them an SCA recruitment pitch. They must have thought I was harmless and told me to pack my car and have an enjoyable visit to Canada.

I have also traveled on business frequently and even worked in Canada for months at a time so here is my list! As a side note, unless the law changes, you will need a passport by sometime in 2008 to drive to Canada. Currently you need one only if flying to Canada.

Do’s and Don’ts for attending events in Canada:
Do:

Be courteous, they are only doing their job. If do have the misfortune of getting stopped, the more annoyed you act, could look like nervousness or hostility to them and will make them search harder.

Bring a Passport or Birth Certificate for each person. Drivers License is a must or even school ID with pictures for any minors in the car.

Print the event flyer and make sure you have good directions. If you are questioned about your activities it is a handy item to show them.

Any Fighting or Fencing equipment is “SPORTS” Equipment. It is not a weapon. When asked “Do you have any firearms or weapons?” I always answer truthfully, “No I do not. I do have some sporting equipment”.

When asked what is the nature of your business you should say something like “I am attending a Medieval Recreation event. It’s a hobby”.

All medication should be in the original prescription bottle. If so you should have no problems.

Don’ts:

TAKE ANY WEAPONS. No guns, swords, axes, daggers etc. Leave all your “normal” SCA weapons at home. I go as far as to leave my feast gear knives at home. They are large enough to cause questions to be asked if I get searched.

Take any minors that are not your own. On the off chance you get stopped its easier if all the kids are yours. Trying to prove who is or isn’t a citizen of the US can be tough enough but if they are not your kids, how do you know. Or at least that will be the argument the border guard may make.

Take drugs with you or drive a car that has had drugs transported in it. If a dog reacts to you or your car be prepared for them to strip it down to the nuts and bolts. They are also not responsible for reassembling your vehicle.

Take alcohol with you unless purchased at the duty free shop.

Take more tobacco products than you can use for the time you are in Canada. If your going for a day don’t take 10 cartons of cigarettes, for example.

Be rude about any of the process. Why give them a reason to pick you out to be searched.

I am not sure if I have left out anything important please let me know if I have.

Sunday's Revel

Sunday’s Revel was fun. Teryll had a houseful and the food was great as usual. Some people worked on finishing off Artisan Guild projects in Teryll’s workshop while others gamed or fought in her yard.

The fighting consisted of Toroshi our GMIT, Ervon, Balian and myself. I thought it was a good practice but I felt slow, or at least slower than normal. It was a little frustrating as I saw what I thought were openings but was not fast enough to be able to take advantage of them. I will need to spend some time working on the fundamentals and pell work to get my speed back up to something reasonable. I did manage to break two swords. One was the hilt of my siloflex sword. I think I carve the handle too small and it is prone to breaking and upon borrowing one of Balian’s swords promptly ripped the thrusting tip off.

We had to cut the fighting off a little early in order to eat and as I said before the food was great. I had made a couple cheese tarts (with no eggs for Teryll ) and during the revel I realized it was the first cheese tart I had made, in 25 years. I will have to get slightly more adventurous in making dishes to pass.

We had our normal meeting after everyone was finished eating. Several topics got discussed but I will defer to Teryll’s minutes for the meeting rather than my memory as I did not take notes. I did ask Gerard to call Balian forth just before the meeting broke off. I made a gift to Balian and his Lady Melisande of two banner poles that I had painted in their Livery colors. It was a gift from my household to his. I thought it would be a nice token of appreciation for the years of service to the local group.
On a side note, My daughter was tickled that she could teach Japanese Chess. She has made my drop her Viking name in favor of a Japanese one. So we will have to retire Kelsey Geirmundrsdottir. She also wants to have some Kimonos made for her. I fear that she has gone over to the dark side. What's a father to do?

Guild Update

Update on Box project from a couple weeks ago!!
Drogo and family have finished their boxes. They look great!!! I believe Teryll has also completed at least one possibly more! I have to confess that I have 2 cut out but not assembled and one assembled and sanded but not finished.
Way to go guys they really look nice!!

Tuesday night Guild meeting

Well, this week turn out was a little smaller than normal. A couple people couldn’t make it for one reason or another.

We had fun making our book covers and I learned that Teryll’s scissors are very sharp indeed. Note to self: keep finger away from sharp end of scissors.

Making the books the previous session was a little quicker than making the boxes for the books. It takes more time to get the ties made and the holes cut out than it did to cut and fold the paper. Even with that, most of the book covers are very close to completion and Lady Teryll has offered to have us complete them at the revel this Sunday, held at her home. Here are a couple of pictures of the covers in progress!!

Shield Progress!!!

Continuing to make progress last night, I cut out 20 ¼” plywood shield blanks. These will be put in a press and glued together to make 10 ½” thick shields. It takes one day to press each shield so it will be about 10-12 days until they are all pressed.
The shields cut out are for are sized for:
Ryan 1
15/16 year old 2
12/13 2
8/10 2
Russ(adult) 1
Robert(adult) 1
Loaner(adult) 1


Currently ¼” plywood is approx. $11 per 4’x8’ sheet. You can make 3 adult sized shields from one sheet and so each shield costs about $3.70 for the material. By the time you have added edging, straps, glue and a couple nuts and bolts, each finished shield costs from $7-10 or $10-15 depending on the edging used. For boffer shields you can use a very light edge ( just pipe insulation) but for heavy combat, it is necessary to put more layers or a better protective edge on shields and it’s reflected in the price.

I would like to handle the shields in one of two ways.

If you would like to purchase the shield it would be $8.50 for a boffer shield and $12.50 for a heavy weapons shield. That is for a completed shield and again will take up to 12 days to have them all done.

Otherwise, when finished, they are free for the use of the group and I would ask you to pass on the boffer shields to Teryll as they are outgrown. The heavy weapons shields can be given to Torashi or myself, as the fighter gets his/her own armor and shield.
For any of the loaner shields I will paint Stormvale’s badge on the front. If you purchase one you can have the fun of decorating it!!

Boffer shields should last forever, only needing to change the edging occasionally. A wooden heavy weapons shield on the other hand will not last forever. If you practice once a week it may only hold up for 6-10 months. In my experience wooden shields will last a bit longer since most of us have not practiced weekly but 18 to 20 months is a maximum if you are active.

I find it best to not glue the edging on but instead strap or lace it on, so that it can be taken off the broken shield and put on the new one pretty quickly.
Let me know who would like a shield or a loaner shield and I will start delivering them as soon as I can. Also let me know if I have missed anyone and need to make even more shields!!! I realized as I was typing this that I still have to make one for my son so I will be picking up more plywood anyway.

Another Banner Stand finished

Well work is going a little better now. A couple projects are wrapping up and I have a bit more time this week.
I was able to get back to working on several of my SCA projects on Sunday afternoon and Monday night.
I finished painting Melisande’s banner stand!! Now only 4 more to go!!

Tuesday night fighting

Work is still kicking my butt this week. I am a couple days behind in posting!!

The Tuesday night fighting practice went well. We had many young people being trained by Terryl to strike each other safely. We need at least two sets of armor for the age range 15-18 as most of the equipment was too small and would not fit the two oldest youth fighters. So that will have to be worked on. Teryll and Torashi both marshaled for the youth combat
For Heavy weapons combat we had four fighters but only two suited up as the other two loaned out equipment for new people. Gavin of Blackwood (Victor) had finished padding his new helm and suited up to give instruction to Russ our newest fighter. Russ seemed to enjoy the process and is now looking at picking up armor of his own. Yay!!!! Torashi marshaled for the heavy practice.
After the heavy practice was over some of the adults indulged in some boffer fighting and seemed to have fun. Perhaps we will pick up another heavy weapons fighter!!
I will have to remember to take my camera to the next practice and post some pictures!
Well more later this weekend when I can catch up on my postings.

Didn't get much done this week

Well it’s been a busy week and I haven’t had much of a chance to work on SCA projects. I have a couple projects at work that have had me working late.
What I have done:
I have picked up the materials to make several boffer weapons for my son and daughter. Pressed but not completed two shields for use with Youth fighting.
I spent some time last night sanding my box project, I want to store my Marshal equipment in it when finished. I think I will carve the Marshals Badge on the front of the box and then paint it. It should be interesting as I have not done much carving before.