This time I used a new bluing agent.  It was much stronger than the gun blue I was used to using and while it did give a much nicer blue I didn’t account for the stronger reaction when I waxed my armour so I didn’t put enough wax on the pieces to effectively stop the bluing process.  So I had to clean the pieces again Tuesday night.  All that considered though I think it still looks pretty good and I don’t think I will need to strip everything off and clean and blue it again.  We’ll see though.

My helm and gorget freshly cleaned, reblued, and waxed.

I finished the second coat of wax this evening.  I’m very please with how everything turned out.  I almost hate to fight in them because they won’t look this good again until I clean and reblue them the next time.

Almost. 

It’s going to look great for Golden Rose.

The current state of my new green linen Kirtle. The sleeves are attached, the hand finishing is done, and now all I need to do is hem it and sew the eyelets.

I spent most of this past weekend working on projects for various upcoming events.  My poor husband was on call all weekend which meant changing the planned projects around a bit but in the end I got quite a bit accomplished.

The first thing I worked on was pulling out all our coolers and our camp grill and scrubbing them all down in preparation for War of the Wings.  We’ve decided to run an encampment this year and I want to make sure all our stuff is ready to go ahead of time to help cut down on some of that last minute stuff that always comes up.

The next thing I worked on was cleaning, rebluing, and waxing my helm and gorget in preparation for Golden Rose this coming weekend.  They turned out really well but I think I’m going to need to add one more coat of wax to them sometime this week.  It did take longer than I expected but less time than Coty expected so that was great.  Afterward we went out for sushi with friends.

So that was my Saturday.  On Sunday I set out to clean the pavilion (more WoW prep) and hopefully get some work done on my green linen kirtle.  Coty helped me pull out the pavilion and lay it out in the sun.  It wasn’t very dirty at all but there were a few places where it had gotten damp at one point that I wanted to spot clean.  I got that taken care of pretty easily and left them to dry in the sun.  We got some lunch and then I set to work on my kirtle.

When I last blogged about this project my to do list was as follows:

1. clip curves
2. press front opening
3. make up new sleeves
4. insert sleeves
5. hand finish front opening and sleeves
6. eyelets
7. hem

After working on my kirtle Sunday afternoon it now looks like this:

1. clip curves
2. press front opening
3. make up new sleeves
4. insert sleeves
5. hand finish front opening and sleeves
6. eyelets
7. hem

I’m pretty pleased.  I got quite a bit done (pictures are up in my gallery).  I had hoped to finish the hem last weekend but by the time we packed up the pavilion, got the clean coolers and grill in the trailer, and got some dinner we were an hour out from True Blood and I decided to just enjoy a bit of a break.  A friend is hosting a sewing day after Golden Rose this Sunday and I think I will just work on finishing it up there.

Tonight I’m hoping to get some laundry going and finish the second coat of wax on my helm and gorget.  I’d like to go to fighter practice Wednesday night as well as Thursday.

This will be my last fighting event of the season and pretty much 2009.  I’ll still be attending practice but my next fighting event will probably be Ymir or Icecastles.  This makes this week the perfect time to assess my armour and schedule repair, replacement, and end of season cleaning before winter sets in.

It’s important to take time to asses your armour for repair.  Keeping it repaired and in good condition will extend its life and ensure that you get maximum usage out of it.  If you just let it rust or sit torn in a corner its life is going to be dramatically shortened and who wants that?  Ensuring that its in good repair will also cut down on those unpleasant moments at events when you realize you shirt has a rip in the sleeve or you’ll have to tape your armour on because you didn’t repair the strap you tore at practice.

I spent most of last night packing for the event this weekend.  I think I can safely say I need new rapier armour and I need to get off my bum and seriously alter my favorite pants.  This means I’m going to need to order fabric and spend quite a bit of time sewing.  I also need to buy leather to make (or have made) some half gauntlets for cut and thrust if I want to authorize at Ymir.  My helm, gorget, and heavy armour all need to be reblued.  I’ve set aside a day next weekend, after Thanksgiving, to get that done.  I also need to tighten one of the springs on my perfplate before it becomes a problem and I need to make some serious additions to my heavy kit if I want to fight in any of the heavy war points at Pennsic.

After this weekend I’ll list everything out and start prioritizing and setting a schedule.  Knowing myself if I don’t do that it won’t get done.  If I do then I’m much more likely to get it accomplished. 

So what about you guys?  Do you have any big armour projects looming?