No more reg. steel "NOW" 1050 spring steel

AB Hammer · Post by **AB Hammer** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:39 pm

Well here is the promised photos. 1050 spring steel

<IMG SRC="http://www.creationtime.com/6spang01.GIF">
The helm has over 100 rivets and the vendal brow.

<IMG SRC="http://www.creationtime.com/slidelegs01.GIF">
The quesses are dished to fit the thigh better.

<IMG SRC="http://www.creationtime.com/slidelegs02.GIF">
It also has full sliding rivets to give maximum movement.

Back to the shop.

William Freskyn Murray · Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:48 pm

damn those are pretty!

no sleep for Will

Jehan de Pelham · Post by **Jehan de Pelham** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:24 pm

William, you are a rock. Your patience and noble spirit are evident. God keep you.

Alan, you are a true artist. Your skill inspires respect. I pray that every good plan and heart's intent of yours meets with success.

I was a dick, but with purpose, when I posted what I posted in the thread above. I feel that when doubt is sown in the hearts of those who desire good and proper things, the minions who carve armor out of plastic barrels tee-hee and point. I hope that all things end well for every man of good heart, and God Damn to Hellfire Those Who Are Not.

Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus

morristh · Post by **morristh** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:39 am

Mine Gott!!! That helm needs to be in a museum

Tim

William Freskyn Murray · Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:10 pm

well it didn't show up today :sad:

here's hopin' tomorrow so I don't have to spend the entire weekend holding my breath.

Will

Jehan de Pelham · Post by **Jehan de Pelham** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:05 pm

All you have to do is check the FedEx tracking number online.

Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus

Ldy Wu · Post by **Ldy Wu** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:02 pm

Be still my heart. That is just too pretty to wear to a fight! Its lovely work. I will SO never be able to afford it, but its just gorgeous.

Jehan de Pelham · Post by **Jehan de Pelham** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:46 pm

Save your change, your grace...all things are attainable to those who yield not! : )

Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus

William Freskyn Murray · Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:27 am

Alan hasn't provided a tracking number. I did ask him in my post and a PM when I asked which address he shipped it to, but didn't get a response to that part of the question. I know he shipped it to my work address, so when it gets here our freight guys will sign for it. I also know because I work in the logistic industry that FedEx ground is usually 3 to 5 business days. If Alan's lady wife sent it Monday night after work FedEx will count that as Tuesday, 3 - 5 business days will be anywhere from Thursday to Tuesday!

And I was really looking forward to showing it off this weekend at an event I'm going to... oh well, not here yet and I'm pretty sure FedEx delivers here daily at 10 am.

Will

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:50 am

I am officially the proud owner of this helmet and these legs, they were delivered this morning.

I will post a further write up when I get home from work & the halloween party tonight.

Will

morristh · Post by **morristh** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:58 am

William Freskyn Murray wrote:I am officially the proud owner of this helmet and these legs, they were delivered this morning.

I will post a further write up when I get home from work & the halloween party tonight.

Will

Praise be to God!

Tim

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:45 pm

Alan,

please check your private messages

Will

Jehan de Pelham · Post by **Jehan de Pelham** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:06 pm

I am happy to hear that at long last you received your armor. I hope it is pleasing to you for a very long time.

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:53 pm

actually the helmet is sized wrong and the articulation on the right leg is crooked. Alan took the measurements himself at Harvest Raid last April when we sat down face to face.

I'm going to think on this, I may be able to come up with a way to add padding and an internal aventail or something that would make me feel safe wearing it. I don't think I'd be completely comfortable in it. I have to take the time to really pad it and see how it works. I just throw in a half inch of padding all around and put it on, I can get three finger between the side of my head and the padding on the other side. With it high enough that I can see out the occulars it opens a gap between my helm & gorget when I move my neck towards my shoulders.

that's what I just pm'd Alan about.

thank you all for your support in this matter. I appreciate everyones thoughts and comments.

disappointed
Will

AB Hammer · Post by **AB Hammer** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:37 am

PM sent

The helm is designed to lay slightly back, not to stand straight up, that is what it sounds like you may be trying to do. Look at the photo and see how the helm is pulled back, that is more how it should sit on your head. A 6 pc spaingen is also a bit rounder my nature. The legs? I got to talk to you so you can explain to me for they have full movement, and will be even better movement after being worn for awile.

I await your PM

William Freskyn Murray · Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:19 am

All,

Alan & I have conversed both via PM and on the phone. Rearranging the padding in the helmet a bit per his guidance seems to make it fit better though the gap between the interior of my helmet and my gorget is substantial enough that I need to get the padding done and then see. I won't have time to play with the padding design "for real" until this weekend so stay tuned for an update after I pad it.

The legs I think I figured out but I'm waiting on some info from Alan. I think the wrap plate on the right cuisse is just a little to tight causing it to push the whole leg off to the right at the top and left at the bottom using the knee as a pivot.

Alan I forgot to ask, what gauge is the stuff made from??

thanks everyone
Will

Jon Barber · Post by **Jon Barber** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:48 am

A bump,

Will - have these issues been sorted out? While everyone has a sense of what has happened I think it's important that people know the outcome of this type of situation.

Jon Barber

William Freskyn Murray · Tue Nov 08, 2005 11:53 pm

Jon,

How's life in the sunshine treating you??? Hopefully not cooking your brain to much

All.... sorry for the delay in getting to this, my job has been kicking my ass and I've been working six days a week about 60 - 70 hours a week.

The issue with the leg armor was easily resolved with a rubber mallet, a 4 X 4 and some attitude, the demi greave seems to float left and right a lot but it articulates well so I figure I'll hook up with Alan at Blackstone Raids in April and we can talk through any adjustments that need to be made. They appear to be completely functional so I think we're good.

The helmet has posed a different problem for me, with Alan's advice on how to pad it I think I can make it work, though I'm going to have to get a new gorget that sits higher on my neck to close up that gap. I plan on making a cloth liner for the padding of my helm, and my sewing machine crapped out.

I also discovered that I had absolutely NO strapping leather left. I got more tonight so this weekend I will monkeying with the sewing machine, making my arming cap & strapping the legs.

I will post pictures of the new toys on me this weekend.

good to hear from you Jon
Will

William Freskyn Murray · Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:58 pm

A quick bump before I go to bed for the night, I have to work 7 to 3 tomorrow.

First, Alan chech your PM's.

I spent Thursday night sewing and stuffing a padded hood to fill the gaps. I put 1/2 inch of blue foam in the helmet itself, and a 1/2 inch of cotton batting into the hood and the helm just doesn't fit. I tried five different combinations of foam/cotton/arming cap/hood/etc combinations that I could come up with. I finally got the helmet to sit comfortably and it sits so high on my head that I have an inch between the top of my gorget and bottom of the helmet with my head straight, when I tilt my head side to side I can get my fist in. I thought about adding a chainmail aventail but the helmet sits so high that any wrap that hit's me low on the back of the head is going to make direct contact with my gorget NOT the helmet.

When I get home from work I'll have my wife take pictures and post them.

I'm at the end of my rope with the helmet, I've had it for weeks and haven't been able to come up with a solution to make it work, fit & be safe. Without literally customs building a liner one inch at a time I don't see this helmet ever working for me.

Because of the time I spent working on this (and raking leaves from my yard) I haven't gotten to strapping the legs. I did scrub them down with Never Dull and gave them a good coat of blue magic.

Look for pictures Sunday night. I'm heading to bed.
Will

Maximillian · Post by **Maximillian** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:51 pm

Grettings,

AB, just a question, have you done any visored, 3 pc lobster tail Sallet with bevor??

Maximilian Von Passau

William Freskyn Murray · Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:31 pm

pictures are up in my Yahoo folder

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/williamfr ... /my_photos

Will

William Freskyn Murray · Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:37 pm

and on a side note, the legs are illegal for me as well because they aren't deep enough. As you can see in the inside shot now that've spent two hours strapping them without any padding under them the inside of the knee cop is JUST covering the third point. Even with just the minimum 1/4" padding it will open the inside of the knee up. Even strapped across the knee it doesn't remain covered through the full range of motion.

All in all, this has been a horrible experience.

Will

morristh · Post by **morristh** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:45 pm

Are the legs black or is that the lighting? I have a older set of legs like this, and I added little wings to them. I know its NO what you wanted to hear, but could you do the same thing?

Man I am so sorry this shit happened to you.

Tim

William Freskyn Murray · Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:50 pm

Just the lighting, they are spring steel with a satin finish and a coat of blue magic wax on them. They need to have a good buffing to the the wax coating off.

No, I don't want to modify the legs.

At this point I think my best course of action for me is to sell these and use the money to buy a helmet and legs from someone else. That way Alan's work still ends up with someone, because it really is spectacular, and I end up getting a new pair of legs and a helmet.

Haven't decided yet.

Will

Vitus von Atzinger · Post by **Vitus von Atzinger** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:53 pm

You seem to have a very long neck or something. That helmet looks just the right size for your head, and yet those gaps are there. Those legs seem to fit you perfectly, actually, and yet it does seem that after putting on a knee pad that your inside point could be in an iffy situation.
I would put the problems you have had post-aquisition down to bad luck. That helmet is beautiful. Those castings are very, very hard work for Alan to make. Very hard, and very time consuming.
I have never seen a situation like this with Alan. He has been late, has had his helpers lose tons of order forms, or they have taken orders and pocketed the money. This has all happened- I have seen it with my own eyes. I have cleaned up messes that his "friends" have made for him. I remember when he was nearly killed in that car accident, and have had to watch the myriad of problems that have arisen from it.
But this is just wierd, bad luck- that helmet should fit you. From certain angles it really does look like it fits great. A taller gorget, maybe? A small rondel on the inside of the knees? An aventail? This seems like one of those cursed situations. Of course, I have seen dozens of guys take problems like these and find easy fixes.
I sympathize with you.

William Freskyn Murray · Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:37 pm

Thanks Sir Vitus.

The only part of this transaction that feels cursed is that I got what I wanted, two BEAUTIFUL pieces of artwork from Alan, that without serious modification I just cannot come up with a way to make work.

I'm going to take them to practice with me Wednesday and get a couple of the locals to give them the once over and maybe one of them will come up with something I didn't.

One of the attempts I made to rectify this was to make a hood with cotton batting stuffed in it and I was debating getting a coif and attaching it to the hood - tie on, zipper, something removable so I can throw it in the washing machine. Or attach an aventail to the bottom... but this involves me spending more money and having to wait. Or getting an aventail and contact cement a piece of leather to the inside of the helmet to sew it to so I didn't have to put a whole new series of wholes in the hat.

The big problem is that it's 2 1/2 inches wider then my haed. Trying to fill that gap with the gorget isn't working, I've already expanded it out as far as it will go and need to add an inch of padding to it to get it to fit with the new sizing.

I have an idea on I'm going to play with some and I'll see where that takes me.

As for the legs, I may just add a piece of hardened leather to the inside of my knee pad to cover the whole that opens up.

we'll see, I've been playing for about nine years and I've gone through quit a few helmets in my days.... and never had an issue like this that I couldn't figure out, I think that's the most frustrating part!

Will

morristh · Post by **morristh** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 7:40 am

Will,

Ok next question (I hope I am not driving you crazy) On the legs----what kind of pad are you wearing, and what kind are you required. I know when I wear the old football pads my legs stick out more. But there are some neoprene versions that are better foam, much thinner and the legs dont stick out nearly as far. You might consider looking at those. I am not sure it would help enough, but it might.

On the helm. The eye placements perfect, do you have an extra long neck as Sir Vitus asks? A couple thoughts come to mind. Not sure how useful they are.

1) Lower the helm to the next eye opening. I like where you have it now, but try lowering it that little bit.

2) The first slat on each side. Could AB maybe make a new set that are longer and flair a bit. It may be the way the picture looks on my crappy moniter, but I was thinking if those slats were longer and flaired to the front a bit, they might cover it more. That may mess up the historical look, I am not sure.

I am truly sorry about the pain this has caused you--its a beautiful helm.

Tim

AB Hammer · Post by **AB Hammer** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:02 am

PM sent to William

I'll get started on a replacement helm. I have worked out a few more shape variations on the helm to get it narrower. I have a stainless one that is going out to Ice today. I found that if I do the front end and the back end first, it is easier to ajust to narrow the sides. Yours I did the sides first and then put them together as well as I changed the pattern a litte more to give less jamming of rivets in the center plates on top. Please send me a photo of the helm on your head so I can get a better Ideal of what you are talking about.

Thanks

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:25 am

Alan,

I will email you copies of the photos. The two big factors are how I had to pad it to make it comfortable and the width. With the helm designed to sit "back" I had to add a lot more padding to the top of the helm then I normally would to get it to sit on my head and distribute the weight, with just minimum padding it was sitting directly on my forehead and I couldn't wear it for more then five minutes at a time without it giving me a headache. This is part of the reason the helmet sit high on me. As for the width, I understand it's because the design of the spagen helm top is rounder but side to side my head is 6 1/2 inches and the helmet is 9.

Before anyone asks, yes I have been walking around my house wearing my helmet!!! How else do you know if you're going to be able to wear it all day at Pennsic??

Morristh,

I usually wear softball knee pads because they are long enough to go under the demi greave and keep it from digging into my shin. SCA minimum is 1/4" padding under the cop so I'm having two thoughts on this. First, get smaller knee pads and a set of greaves. Second, finish my gamboised cuisses and extend them to the end of the demi greave with a minimum amount of padding. The legs are protective enough that they only thing I THINK I need under them is a little padding to protect me from the legs! I've never had metal legs before so this is an experiment for me.

As I said, this stuff is great and I'm not giving up on it yet.... just frustrated because I always saw myself and relatively intelligent and pretty good with armor and I just cannot make this work.

thanks again for the support. I'm off today so I'm going to take one more run at getting this stuff straightened out. I'm a little under the weather so I will try to post again tonight with how things went. I'm tossing the padding I currently have in the helm and going to try something completely different I came up with last night.

Will

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:20 pm

changed the padding again and now the height is much lower but the helm is still to wide. If you look in my yahoo folder listed in the post above you will see that even though the helmet is now down almost to my shoulders when I pivot my head it still gaps quit a bit, enough I could easily get a sword in the whole.

new designs need bugs worked out, it happens.

I played with my leg strapping and I'm pretty confident they won't give me issues but I'll post again about those after Wednesday's practice.

Will

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:35 pm

sorry to bring this back to the front page but it's been two weeks and my messages are going unanswered again.

the 14th Alan sent me a PM stating he will get started on a new helm for me, I sent him back a couple ideas I had that I figured might help with the contstruction and my measurements again just to be on the sure side. Even told him whichever is easier for him to construct it in stainless (as I originally ordered) or spring I'll take either one without complaint. I also asked him what he would like me to do with this helmet, sell it off here at a price determined by Alan and hold the money until the new helmet is done or hold onto the helmet until the new one is made.

the 16th Alan sent me back a response stating he already planned on changing the design to the way I had suggested, but nothing about what he wants me to do with this helmet.

I've sent him two PMs since, unanswered. I have another sitting in my outbox which means Alan hasn't been signed on in a few days (wrote it yesterday but it's still in my outbox).

Unfortunately the only thing that seems to spur a response is kicking this back into the publics eyes, which I don't want to do.... I just want regular updates which Alan doesn't seem capable of without a nudge. I've let it go two weeks because of the holiday, figured everyone needs a breaks so I would let it slide until after turkey day. Still no response.

This time he's not just settling a debt he's actually going to be financially compensated by selling the helmet I have in my possession, I figured he would be MORE likely to contact me now since he's looking at making a good buck off this helm once I get mine.

My concern is that I don't want to do anything drastic to the helmet (like WD40 it, wax it, etc) because I don't want to treat someone elses helmet and have them unhappy when they receive it, but it's not stainless and I've already had to never dull it to get the surface rust off. I would prefer to sell this to someone who can use it and not have to be responsible for it's upkeep.

okay, back to your regularly scheduled classifieds/want ads
Will

AB Hammer · Post by **AB Hammer** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:11 am

William PM sent

Been buisy with Thanksgiving.

William Freskyn Murray · Wed Nov 30, 2005 8:44 pm

PM received from Alan and all details have been worked out. He has a buyer for the helmet I have in my possession already and has two more, with the new design, in production - one in stainless and one in spring. He expects to mail my helmet out next week.

As he told me that the helmet would probably be out next week I have told him that I am going to leave this thread alone until December 12th, if I haven't heard anything from him before that Monday I will bump this back to the front page.

I will post any progress I hear from Alan if he does not.

Will

William Freskyn Murray · Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:14 pm

As promised here is today's update. Communication continues and Alan has advised the replacement should ship most likely Thursday.

Gonna let this drop off the board until after xmax. I will post once received and a review of the helm with pictures if received before then.

Will

Mike E. · Post by **Mike E.** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:41 pm

i'm sorry to put this back on the top of the board but it appears that this is the only way that things are getting done.

having said that, i would like to bring up another case of Alan, (and my order) droping off the map. i placed an order with AB on august third in response to his original post on this thread. I placed an order to the tune of around $730 a huge sum considering i'm a high school student and the only pay i get is for mowing lawns, (and for those interested $700 is approximately three years of pay checks). so you can see why i am taking this seriously. Alan said it would be done by some time in September. i sent a check and Alan e-mailed he got it on the 13th. lets fast forward to Octber 14 when a got my next e-mail from AB. it stated "Greetings Michael it will all be ready to ship by a week from today fri. Thanks Alan"
all well and good then a month went my so i e-mailed AB back and asked if my order was shipped and if so, for the tracking #. On November 7th I got this e-mail "Greetings; Michael We havn't received the pay-off on the armour, we don't ship until all is paid in full." when I e-mailed him back and said the check had cleared the bank i got this

"Sorry Mike, I normaly don't get upfront pay offs and when your
buissy it got over looked. I'm on a trip but will have
it out on my return. Thanks AB Hammer"

that was on the eighth of November, i have not heard from Alan since. i would like to say that this missing armour is all that keeps me from compleating my kit. also the leader of the group I'm in has had the same run around happen with his $400 helm order which he has also paid for in full
so Alan this is my request that you respond with a reason as to why you have not sent the orders and and an e-mail with the tracking #'s until i receive these things i will bump this every other day!
and to all others i would have to say that after this is over i like William Freskyn Murraywilliam, will probably never place an online armour order again. this is too much of a pain in the @$$ trying to get what belongs to me, i would also like to say unless you are in driving distance of his shop i can't say i can recommend a armourer that would rip a kid off
my problem and 2 cents,

thanks Mike E.