I've mentioned a number of times that I'm trying to build a set of armor for the SCA. This isn't exactly an easy task, given the price range can wander up into the hundreds if not break a thousand even for the starter stuff. A huge chunk of the price actually comes from shipping, since genuine blacksmiths are precisely as difficult to come across as you might imagine. Furthermore shipping fees are usually base on weight and size, which tends to be a problem when you're talking about big metal plates meant to keep your guts on the inside.
So you can imagine my joy when I discovered a local armoring guild that could lend us a hand. Some of theirs prices were higher than I might have otherwise found, but the quality of work reflected that cost and honestly it was likely to end up cheaper once I deducted the shipping fees I was going to step around. All in all I thought it was a pretty good deal to get a better helmet for less just by picking it up myself, so I called up the guild master and asked for an appointment. He told us he was good for that very day and to come out whenever we could.
Josh and I sauntered out to see what we could. We weren't entirely clear on how we'd go about ordering up a helmet (the first thing we wanted), since he had mentioned that 'one size fits all', at least in terms of the metal, so all we'd have to worry about is the padding unless our heads were horribly abnormal. With that in mind we weren't certain if he'd have a few on hand we could just buy rather than ordering anything at all, so we found ourselves a bit confused but with pockets full of money as we drove off to small town the guild was stationed in.
To say things didn't go as I expected them doesn't give enough credit to what happened. It's fair to say things didn't even fall within the spectrum of what I thought could happen. There weren't any helmets waiting for us to buy, and there wasn't any ordering. Our worries that we'd actually need measurements of our heads were as unfounded as our fears the price would be more than we were led to believe. Mr. Fedun, the lead armorer, didn't even want to sell us anything. I had spoken to Mr. Fedun before and I was aware he knew the merchant business through and through, and when confronted by two young men with several hundred dollars in their pockets and no idea of what they were getting into I'm not certain how he surpressed the urge to take our money and send us on our way. Maybe I'm just a horrible person, because I don't think it ever even occurred to him.
He took us into his shop and showed us around in what I initially thought was just him proving that he does the work personally or at least on site by one of his own people. The tour quickly evolved though; he admitted he could just make our helmet himself and it'd be ours inside a week, but he didn't want to do that. No, he wanted us to make it ourselves. I think its important to make an aside here and point out that the collective metalworking experience Josh and I have amounts to something equalling that of a chipmunk. Possibly a dead one.
Sufficient to say it took him several minutes to make us properly understand what he was suggesting, let alone get me to wrap my head around the thought that the idea could have any outcome other than us accidentally burning down his workshop. He stuck to it though, for you see it turns out every Saturday he opens his shop to a number of people who make armor; for themselves or others. He wanted us to show up and join them. They teach one another, helping each other learn the various ways things are made and how to use each machine. We wouldn't have our armor anywhere near as soon, but it'd come from our own hands and we'd know how to maintain it.
After that came the full tour of his property, including such little things as a mead hall he's building and a trebuchet that can launch pumpkins. He apparently hosts tiny fairs every now and then. He teaches swordplay at Ottawa's Algonquin College and holds a black belt in a martial art. At that point I think I would've believed him had he told us he was a part time wizard.
It should come as no surprise that we took him up on his offer, I suppose, but I'm still shocked we even got it.
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