0 The Ringlord

No, not Lord of the Rings, the Ringlord. And believe me, the name is no boast.

For the people who have the money but don't have the time to do home experiments, or those who want something exotic, there is the Ringlord.

http://theringlord.com/cart/default.asp

Its based in Canada and has...well everything. The Ringlord sells all you could possibly need for making chainmaille of all kinds and a few other things as well.One of my minor dreams involves driving up to the place with a big truck, several strong lads and grabbing everything thats not bolted down and we'd carry bolt cutters just in case.

Starting with the tools - it has all the kinds of pliers you'd need, the wire cutters and the saws for the coils, mandrels, more miscellaneous stuff like mini scales to calculate weight, welders, tumblers etc.

As far as products go it sells wire, coils and cut rings from trivial materials like copper, galvanized and stainless steel to exotic ones like brass, inconel, nickel silver, gold, niobium and titanium. The very prospect of making a titanium maille shirt is definitely tempting. The Ringlord is also responsible for the small leaf like scalemail that can be seen around the web - it makes them. Finally they also have finished maille shirts and sheets of chainmaille from most of the above mentioned materials. All in all the price range for most products is what i'd call acceptable. I've never personally purchased but I've heard a lot of positive reviews, and well let's be honest, there is no other like it. If you are on a tight budget, well you can daydream like me. But if you can afford it or its something special you want, look no further.
 
All in all - seriously just go have a look.
http://theringlord.com/cart/default.asp

0 The smallest(and most adorable) barbarian in the horde

Right, so on this Christmas my cousin Nevena - a charming lil' girl got the chance to try out wearing  real steel armor. Not exactly the proper gift for a little girl, but then again Nevena ain't into dolls anyway and did not complain about it being heavy at all. It was a bit of a challenge to gear her up- the helmet especially was way too big for her head so I had to pad it quite a lot. She found the whole ordeal really funny and she even wants to come to some of our trainings once the weather warms up. All well and good of course, as long as she is a spectator only. Oh well, at least I know what to give her for her next birthday - her own aluminium chainmail shirt. Let's hope she doesn't go all medieval on the boys that are teasing her in class(she is 9 and she started school 1 year earlier than the rest) or the teachers in her school. Its not that I am worried about the outcome, I just don't know how are we going to bury them all.

Now I know I may be in the process of creating the future warlord that will burn down your homes but we can't be sure can we? Right?!

 

 I also took the liberty of turning some of the photos into motivational posters. I just couldn't resist the temptation.

Ok that's all! Now move along citizen!

0 Blog redesign after New year's Eve.

Right, so, at some point next week(and next year too, as it happens) I will be changing the template of the blog again, This one is better than the basic blogger, sure, but on other hand its well - a stiff, I can't modify it much since I know almost nothing about coding, web design and html. I'd like to put on something brighter, and get some quick links and categories in here, leading to different sections - after all the first part of the blog involves tutorials, I'm not sure if many visitors are even aware of it, and a gallery for the finished projects/WIPs and so on. A welcoming message would be a good addition too, maybe a decent wallpaper for background if I can find a relevant one. While I know of several sites with blogger templates, I could use suggestions here, and when the time comes some help too I don't want to lose my nerve over a missing piece of code or something, nor do I want to turn my site into a total mess.  Oh yeah - expect some juicy updates soon. I got stuff to show to the world. As Dexter from Dexter's laboratory would say - "My greatest creation is completed!", right before unveiling the new "greatest creation".

0 Birthday time! Turned 23

Eh, How fast time flies. So yeah happy birthday to me...