The 2012 renfaire season

[Sir Edward]

Well, renfaire season is upon us. VARF cast rehearsals start up this weekend, which is always a sign to me that things are ramping up.

I'm always afraid to see how my armor has fared over the winter. My great helm has an unprecedented amount of rust on its face, but not so much that it'll be difficult to remove. For some reason, placing it over the fireplace mantle has led to accelerated rusting.

My plate armor needs some clean-up on the back-plate. For some reason, the duffel bag I keep it in has somehow reacted to the oils or something, and the plate tends to stick to the bag when left in there for any length of time. Now one of the foam-pads I left in there glued itself between them, and I had to peel it apart, and my god that back plate is icky now. Time for the steel-wool and acetone!

I guess spring-time wouldn't be complete without its share of armor maintenance.

[Sir Brian]

Now one of the foam-pads I left in there glued itself between them, and I had to peel it apart, and my god that back plate is icky now. Time for the steel-wool and acetone!

If you want to bring it Sunday I can run it through the sand blaster in my shop. I just cleaned up Josh's Albion Liechtenauer with it and it looks great and you had seen how nasty it was last free play. 

[Sir Matthew]

Yeah, I have School of the Musketeer in about three weeks, so it's high time I started cleaning my weapons and armor. With my wife joining the unit this year, we are going to have camp equipment to get cleaned up and ready too, so I guess it's time to get crackin'.

[Sir James A]

My guess on the fireplace is, if it's a regular "vents to outside" fireplace, it's a convergence spot of cool outdoor air + warm indoor air and is a constant temperature battleground, and probably speeds up oxidation. If it's a non-vented / gas one ... I have no idea. Rust goblins? Roblins?

My brass trimmed armor has a lot of interior rust, but did when I got it. I'm going to take it all apart, paint the inside ... then outside, and put it back together.

[Sir Edward]

Yep, ventless gas fireplace.