Product Review: Hal’s Armor Stakes

[Sean Powell]

Hello,

We’ve all come to recognize that Hal is a fine purveyor of newbie armor tool kits. About a month ago Hal offered up an auction for a horizontal stake made from welded pipe components. I requested a custom stake of similar design (one curve up for flared edges and one down for tighter curves in 2 different directions). Between the Holidays, my 1 ½ year old daughter and a bout with the flu I haven’t had much time to play with the stake but after about an hour of intermittent pounding today I’m very much in love with the stake. I’m going to give it a very hearty 8 out of 10.

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Communication: Hal was prompt in his e-mail replies. I don’t think I ever waited 24 hours for an answer. He took a vague concept that I only explained verbally without pictures and executed it perfectly.

Delivery: Hal shipped my stake in less then 2 weeks of verbally accepting the order. That included the time for a check to travel to Texas.

Quality: I’ve seen a number of crappy welds in my days. If I didn’t know EXACTLY where to look I wouldn’t be able to find them. The grinding is smooth and slick with no signs of porosity in the weld. The pipe sections meet with no misalignment and the whole piece feels rock solid even if I know that it is hollow.

Cost: I’m not sure where Hal is going to set the final price for these but even after shipping mine was about 1/3 of the cost of a solid stake with square tapered base that I could get from Ironmonger or similar. As a hobbiest I always have to watch that the cost of the tools won’t exceed the cost of buying myself the armor in the first place. This hit my price point nicely.

Durability: I’m a hobbiest. I help newbies in my shire get armored for SCA combat. My work is neither pretty nor highly proficient. I’ve only used the stake for 2 projects (flare on a gauntlet cuff to align with a metacarpal plate and the ankle flare of a greave). The stake shows no signs of wear, scuffing or denting from my inexpert flailing. It gives a good rebound despite being hollow and DOESN’T have a bell-like tone. I don’t think that it needs to be sand filled. Moving and storage is definitely easier without the added weight of sand.

Mounting: OK the one partial negative. The stake is mounted to a section of flat plate stock (1/2â€

[Halberds]

Thank you Sean,

I have another custom stake to build and I needed some feed back.
However, this next one will have the tapered hardie shank.

My sabaton toe stake sliped in the vice as well. The slip stop is a good idea. I just welded it to a base and clamped it to the workbench to solve my slipping.
One could also weld on a section of sq. stock to prevent slipping.

I am improving on my welding but it will be a lifetime quest to be a real welder.

So glad you like your stake, and as I always say:
____________________
Happy Meetal Pounding