I'm Still Here! And I've Got Shields!

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I updated my blog. In the time since my last post, I went through Halloween season, midterms, essays, birthdays, parades and a bunch of other stuff my brain is too full to remember. I even fixed a neighbors glasses with a nail, a thumb tack and a lot of filing. I had to remake a tiny hinge.

Thus far October has been my most successful month of business. My wife told me of a scene from Nightmare Before Christmas  that is quite fitting. My most popular items were my Costume and Adventure Bows. I guess I shouldn't be surprised with all the movies and TV shows with action archer characters.
Because of the high demand for them and the homework load I wasn't able to work on much else during October.

​However now we are two and half weeks into November. I now have some more time to work on new product designs. A few weeks ago I decided to practice making a PVC Bracer shaped like my steel ones. I don't have them in full production yet but I hope to soon.

​ In the mean time, I have successfully made a new product that is close to my heart: the PVC Shield. It took me a while to work out the bugs in my head about how to attach straps to it and I finally figured it out a few days ago. It was really simple too - which kinda make me feel sheepish. (baa! derp, lol)

This particular PVC Shield is designed for left handed folk, or for people who want to protect their writing hand I suppose. It is a size medium, like the Wooden Ambidextrous Shield I made a while ago. There will be both smaller and lager sizes available and I will give dimensions for them when I make them.

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I have already tested this shield out with both my son and my wife. Testing consisted of my son chasing me around with his sword while carrying the shield while I was unarmed. He loved it. Kid approved. My wife's testing of it included sparing matches between her and I. We used the Knight's Swords and a wooden shield as the other props. Combat was fierce and we loved it. My wife approves and the shield is still in good condition, even with all the whacking we did on it.
I make my plastic shields from a high impact resistant plastic so they can handle the abuse.

I intend to make a Small or Child's Shield next.
And in case just being able to order a shield isn't awesome enough, I will be creating two complete sets of for the aspiring PVC Warriors Armory.
At this moment these sets will include the following respective lists:

• For adults and youth - Small Costume PVC Recurve Bow, A Medium PVC Shield, A PVC Knight's Longsword and a scabbard for the Sword
• For children -  Child's Costume PVC Recurve Bow, A Small PVC Shield, A PVC Knight's Sword and a scabbard for the Sword.
  

I have other exciting products in the works too.
If you have any ideas on what I should call these sets please let me know. I will be posting the listing for these sets sometime before Tuesday of next week. You can contact me via my contacts page or through the comments box below.
In other news, I have been studying up on blacksmithing history but not as much as I would like, much less have I been writing about it. This is mostly due to my academic work load. Having to read and write a lot for college leaves me feeling little joy in the acts of reading and writing. I might write on this topic to you before I write about more blacksmithing history. There is so much I want to write about, so much to share but I only have so much energy. Oh, and before anyone suggests it, NO! I will not start drinking energy drinks or coffee. I value my health and my wallet.


Hopefully I'll write to again soon and show you more finished products.


Forging On,
Stephen