It was suggested to me that I should post an introduction. I wondered why that never occurred to me, and now here I am!
What brings me here is my interest in western medieval armor, weapons and history, and particularly the philosophical stance of the community. I've been collecting swords for a long time, and it was my interest in the development of swords that led me into my interest in armor. In turn to really learn about armor I've had to learn about virtually every other aspect of medieval life, because I need to understand the armor, not just posess it. Thus while I've only been seriously into armor for a few years, I've acquired a lot of knowledge over that time because I haven't stayed focused just on the armor itself. As with my sword collection, my guiding principle in armor collecting is "it must be as real as possible" because only if it's real can I gain understanding of the real thing. A side effect of that is because I am on a sort of personal journey of enlightenment, I don't have an opinion about what anyone else should do. You don't have to be analy historical just because I am. Wearing plastic fantasy armor to the Renfaire is cool if that's what makes you happy. I might do it too if it looks like fun. In fact I have toyed with the idea of dressing up as a Star Trek character to the next Renfaire to walk around pointing a tricorder at people and saying "Captain, it seems as if we've beamed down into the wrong century!"
I have about 20 swords, a dozen other medieval weapons, and currently two armor harnesses of 1350 and 1390 English design. I'm constantly looking for ways to upgrade my late 14th century harness and contemplating what my next one will be.
I won't bore you with my whole life story, but my other interests that you might find interesting include sci-fi, motorcycles (mainly sport bikes), firearms (I was an M1 tank crewman for almost a decade, did a combat tour in Iraq, and spent a few years testing experimental weapons and equipment at Aberdeen Proving Grounds), computers, PC games (I just never get tired of Skyrim, and SWTOR was the most fun MMO I ever played, looking forward to Titanfall and Elder Scrolls Online) and Role Playing Games like Pathfinder, D&D 3.5, the old WEG D6 Star Wars and others. I play RPGs religiously and have been in at least one game a week continuously for the past 15 years, GMing for 99% of that. I have a website called
www.DiceAndSteel.com to reflect my two favorite interests and be a creative outlet.
So, hi. Nice to meet you all and hope I can make a positive contribution.
Scott
