Ashcraft-Baker Review

[Noe]

I recently did business with Ashcraft-Baker (http://www.ashcraftbaker.com/), and thought I should tell of my experiences.

The order was for some basic armour for some of our newer members. We purchased two of their "spangen" helms, a basket hilt, a shield basket, and a pair of guantlets.

The helms are as pictured. Not terribly authentic but made with solid craftmanship. The welds were good and penetrated well, although they could have been cleaned up a bit more.

The same goes for the basket hilt and shield basket. Good safe work, but could use some grinding. The shield basket was surprisingly tall, so it will ride away from the shield a bit. Both the basket hilt and the sheild basket did not extend very far over the hand. Still, no big deal, and for ten bucks each...

I was particularly impressed by the clamshell gaunts. For seventy bucks they came prestrapped, with a good, deep thumb and excellent finger coverage. The articulation is good if a bit reliant on loose riveting. Still, they are good gauntlets, especially in light of the price. I would feel safer in them than I would in the gaunts provided by many other armourers at much higher prices.

So here is my evaluation, on a five star scale:

Authenticity: two stars. Let's face it, a spun top always looks like a spun top.

Craftsmenship: three stars. Its strong, safe and neatly assembled, but not especially pretty or cleaned up. Of course, you can have them cleaned up, but it costs more (although not much more).

Communication: five stars. I'm not exaggerating a bit. Kelly often responded to my email messages within an hour of my having sent them! She managed to do this even though I sent I don't know how many messages trying to arrange the order from Japan.

Customer Service: five stars. If I had a question, Kelly was right there with the answer. When they said they would ship by a given date, the package was damn well in the mail on that day. When I reported in passing that the leather attachment point on the fingertips of one of the gauntlets had been cut through during shipping, she replied (again within that hour) that they would ship me a new attachment point, plus some rivets with which to attach it. I was very impressed.

To sum up, Ashcraft-Baker is an excellent supplier of solidly constructed armour for those who are more concerned with budget with authenticity. I particularly recommend them for their selection of guantlets, which I believe offer the best combination of appearance and safety in their price range. Well done, folks.

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