AZ-RUNE

Slava Atenveldta,

Lord Iosif Volkov, Squire to his excellency Viscount Sir Jerry the Inverter of Kilkenny
House Inverted
Baronial Guard of Sun Dragon
Kingdom of Atenveldt

arizona.rune@gmail.com

I am also a good man, loyal, determined, patient (more so as I get older), caring, and nurturing. When I look at the good and bad traits I see two side of the same coin.  So what does that make me, human I guess, a person that feels at least, a man.


My faith in many things has been bruised and left in doubt but as my father would say, "the sun will rise tomorrow whether you like it or not."  So I persevere because of an old motto of my Scottish clan: Lindsey, which is "Endure Forte."


My fighting style was centered around this and all my tastes in literature, history, and so many things have been centered around two simple, yet powerful words: endure forte. In Norse mythology it is dark about the end times of Ragnarök, and the Battle of Thermopile where 300 Spartans (yes and there roughly 1,000 other fellow Greeks) stood against insurmountable odds.  These stories made me realize I cannot agree with Machiavelli in that "the ends do not justify the means." I read "The Prince" and there is wisdom in it but gather from it the wisdom you value and re-read it in a few years and see if you value the same things. 


I believe strongly that "white leather" means first that I must serve as the wall, that I will defend against all assaults and those behind me can move freely because I stand here against the storm. This thought leads to service and the words of Leo Tolstoy and Jack London:



"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."  --Leo Tolstoy


"He who serves all best serves himself."  --Jack London


When the water crashes against the stone and breaks it does wear it down over the years but when the people come and reinforced the stone the cycle is renewed. When Tolstoy talks about changing the world I think of every boy's dream about being a knight to save the land, but not what to do the day after that. Then I think of London's words and find that knights have become cops and firefighters they continue to save the day each day and by serving those around them they become reinforced because the whole gets stronger through their efforts.


Others will mention that all the stone cannot be attended to at the same time surely some must fall.  I would agree but remember Thermopile, remember the Alamo, ethics and morality are what you do when no one is looking. They could not see the future and yet stood their ground to make a way for that future to come, they served without regard for their well being because they saw what the SCA strives to see everyday.


the Dream...
... of what should be, not what was or often is.


I see "white leather" as perfect imperfection, when a broken soul can find reparations to itself through service to a goal bigger than they are yet like a unique, perfectly imperfect snowflake fall with the power of an avalanche of change when they unite in community of action.


Sister Joan Chittister of the Order of Saint Benedict said it best about the church, and I find this to be true of any institution that becomes successful and sustaining.
  "The church is a human institution, and it is slow.  It's also a universal institution.  It takes a long time for ideas to seep to the top, let alone to move the bottom.  So you just realize that what is going on right now is simply the seeding of the question.  It comes down to how many snowflakes does it take to break a branch?  I don't know, but I want to be there to do my part if I'm a snowflake."


Each bearer of "white leather" and the peerage as a whole is one of these snowflakes, and with the inspiration they can muster all of us become perfectly imperfect, unique, and special.


I can't wait to see what we can do when such a community moves together.

Now I split the hinge to help with articulation which would contract to a point when bent at the knee. See below:

Now you can see the split hinge contract at this point and articulation is no longer an issue. Now came what turned out to be a bigger issue for me. Because the right half of my body is a half-inch longer than the left half this right legs sits to low given the shins were measured off the left leg. I know its my fault for not realizing this would come back to haunt me. That being said I went down to the closest Tandy Leather / Leather Factory store to talk about keeping the leg from sliding down. The manager was in and he had made a number of leather armour suits for various S.C.A. fighters over the years. I walked in wearing the right shin and we began to discuss my options of how to fix it. He peg the right-side / left-side size issue within 10 minutes of talking to me. Then the conversation became not "how to keep from sliding down" but "how to hike the shin up to the right spot."

This is what I could come up with give time, only having copper rivets, some 10oz. leather straps and chainmail I wanted to build something with:

Now I will be adding to the chainmail to make a sabaton of sorts but that will wait till FP so I can test the alterations out and then it is on to the vest. Ahh, at least E.W. is paid for and we are stocked on gear.

The picture here is an attempt to show my progress and the blue on the handle is wrapping for a tennis handle for shock absorption and then leather stripping removed from an axe I had used and re-purposed for grip on this handle. After E.W. I will trade the pommel out for a brass pommel for better balance. The thrusting tip is also from Windrose as well.