A few reviews from some different folks

[Syrfinn]

Well have finally gotten most of my stuff to redo my romano-irish kit, so time for the reviews. Will add pics of the kit when I finally get some.

Eldesarian Metalworks - Got some of Syr Theos aluminum lammellar plates. Had them anodized brass, and look awesome. Nice and light, but also feel like I am wearing something that is protecting me. Used them last week, and worked great.

Icefalcon - Got my new xl blackened stainless shirt today. Had one before, so knew what I was getting, but was silly and had sold it. So had to get a new one. Looks good, cleaning it up now, to be able to fight with it tomorrow at practice. As always, great communication, and quick turnaround time. Also got baldur centergrip boss and egg gauntlets. Will be selling the egg gauntlets here soon. Never used them, just went a different direction, will probably let them go for $100.

Windrose - Bought 2 new shields, from him to replace my old centergrip. One for tourneys and one for war. Both of the 7071 stock. Had both covered in canvas and had the edging put on. Like always, great communication and quick turnaround.

BlackSwan Designs - Bought some of her winnigas. Still trying to figure out if I like them or not. The product is perfect, just still getting used to wearing them. Got them very quickly.

Bokalo Armory - Bought a set of his aluminum gauntlets. They were designed sort of like my last set of gauntlets that I have had for 18 years, so felt very comfortable with the design. Used them last weekend, and worked like a charm. Want to see how they work with single sword.

Think thats it. Will get pics of everything on, when I can and add it to the post.

[Todd R.]

Question, how are you going to clean up the Icefalcon chainmail? I have one and was wondering.

Thanks

[Syrfinn]

Lol, you would ask me that, right after i cleaned out my pm box, and I had just typed it all out for Sixtus.

Basic rundown, is this.

Needed stuff - Simple Green Heavy Duty Cleaner (or whatever you want to use), cleaning gloves, scrub brush

Have the gloves on when you cut the shirt out of the wrapper. Its covered in the oil shipping stuff, and is a mess.

Have a sink or something to put the shirt in. Fill it with hot water, put the Simple Green in, then add shirt. Swish shirt around a bunch, then let it sit for a bit.

Come back and scrub one side real good, then drain sink, and repeat for other side.

After you do that, turn shirt inside out and repeat previous steps.

I did this for my previous shirt, and worked well on cleaning it real good. I did it till I was out of Simple Green, so was probably 4 or 5 times I am guessing.

Then drained sink again, and just rinsed shirt off for awhile, trying to get any residue Simple Green off.

Then took it out and put on a towel and dryed it off the best I could.

After all this, and you can only really do this with the stainless. Is I preheated my oven to about 350, then put the shirt in, to burn off any remaining oil, well most of it. i still had some left after I did it, but was a lot less.

After all that, shirt was still a little bit oily, but I dont think your ever going to get all of it off. But what was left was eaily wiped off my hands and such with a towel.

Dont be surprised to see a couple of mild links on the stainless shirt. My last one had like 4 or 5 links on it. And I have heard a few others say they found some also on theirs. Wasnt a lot, and when dealing with all various lines of maille, I can understand a few getting mixed up together.

[Todd R.]

Thanks for the advice.

I have one other silly questions. Were the rivets on your shirt set all of the way? It looks like on mine that they put the rivet through and then barely penned the end, leaving some shank. I hope this made sense.

[Syrfinn]

Will take a closer look later on. Right now its soaking.

[justus]

If it's stainless, why are they packing it in oil? or is that part of the blackening process?

Thinking about getting that very shirt myself.

-Justus

[Syrfinn]

No idea to be honest, I was surprised when I got my first shirt from them. I'm guessing its just habit, or there could be a very good reason, I just dont know what it is.

Hopefully his Grace will pop in and say why. Its not that big of a pain, with how I clean it, the water is already looking better, and on my 3rd turn inside out.

[chef de chambre]

If it's stainless, why are they packing it in oil? or is that part of the blackening process?

Thinking about getting that very shirt myself.

-Justus

POssibly. By blacking it, it makes it mroe saleable to more people - some people won't buy stainless, because it does not have the right look.

[justus]

While I'm quizzing you, it would be awesome to see a picture of you in the new shirt! I think we are of similar build.

-Justus

[Syrfinn]

Will do, plan on having a pic done with all the new stuff hopefully in the next couple of days.

As far as the oil, it seems to be the same type of oil, that was on my mild mail, when I got it from Von Sussen, so not sure if its the blackeneing or not.

[Duke Icefalcon]

Almost everything that is sent out of India has cosmoline on it. I have seen every kind of metal and even wood products come out of there with it on it. I am not sure why they would put it on stainless.I asked the question just the other day to our supplier. He said that it really did not need it either as it is 304 stainless. I also asked about the links that might be made of mild steel. His answer is that they should all be stainless however they will sometimes pick up bits of the hammer tool (which is mild) during the flattening process. If this is the case, it should be able to be cleaned off and should stay clean. Try that and let me know how this works.

Thank you all for your orders. I will keep you posted on the last shipment whcih should include the last of the 6mm and the rest of the stainless armor.

Cheers!

[Kotek]

Bokalo Armory - Bought a set of his aluminum gauntlets. They were designed sort of like my last set of gauntlets that I have had for 18 years, so felt very comfortable with the design. Used them last weekend, and worked like a charm.

Which version did you get?

[Syrfinn]

Cool, will take a look after I get done cleaning it, and see if any of the links go rusty, and if just cleaning works.

Thanks again for suppling us with these.

On Bokalos site, it was item #430, the manatee gauntlets.

[Kotek]

thanks!