Krindenium

Courtesy of @flaskoflethe, we had the wonderful opportunity to experiment with knapping sapphire!

We started with this lovely piece of synthetic sapphire from Tom's Box of Rocks, although it started too round and needed to be thinned and flatenned before I could knap it.

After grinding, it was time to start flaking. I was not remotely prepared for how difficult this would be, the first flake took 6 attempts with the full force of my body to drive even a small little chip, and the sapphire fought me just as much for every next flake.

After hours of exhausting work, I was finally able to create a knapped edge across the entire piece. I could not manage to drive flakes all the way to the center, but both my tools and body had taken enough of a beating that I decided to declare the piece finished after polishing up the frosted center a little.

This was an amazing project, and I'm really thankful I finally had the opportunity to try out sapphire. I want to experiment with the material more, but I think for now and more pieces made in ruby or sapphire will be case by case commissions, as I cannot justify the cost, labor hours, and recovery time without a client paying upfront. Once I can get some more specialized tools like a lapidary saw I'm hopeful it'll be a more practical material to work with.

Feel free to ask any questions about this project! It was easily the most difficult material I have ever worked, and I'm excited to talk about it more to those curious.

ummmm so basically the sun disappeared? I think the world might be over now sorry

Equiping an armor tutorial

Plate armor is expensive and needed to be custom fit to the wearer. This means that at no point in history was it the standard for the majority of an army's soldiers. The elite knights would buy and maintain their own plate (well, their squires would do the maintenance), while footmen would get by with substantially less protection.

If a character is sufficiently concerned with their appearance, either through vanity or an attempt at intimidating their opponents, inadvisable accessories and flourishes might be added to the armor. Doubly so if they never actually expect to see combat and it's mostly ceremonial gear.

I have some gigs lined up this month, but if folks are able to pitch in a little bit it’d really take a lot of stress off. A lot of things have changed for us financially in a short period of time and I fear this may continue to happen for a bit. I know times are tough for literally everyone right now, but basically if like 85 or so people chip in $5 each we’d be golden. Which is to say I have a goal of $425, but honestly anything at all towards that would help a lot! thank you!