I'm throwing my lot in with the "Second and Simpler" crowd, please.

And just a clarification: will he be keeping this mold semi-permanently? What I mean is, say in a few years I need some more stars, for children or apprentices, I'll be able to order more then?

There is also an off-hand reference to support a six-rayed version in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" in letter #211 written to Rhona Beare he compares Numenorean theology as "Hebraic". The full quote; "The Numenoreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I thin...

Pete, I was thinking along the same lines. Excellent idea. Well, the first version I'd like to put forward is actually the shield design you did for our Christian Fletcher Dawg Days photo contest all those years ago. It was a nice, clean, six-rayed design. Pete's shield design: http://x69.xanga.com/...

I'm starting to wonder if the difference in edition between the "five-rayed star" and "six-rayed star" is an American vs. British discrepancy. Maybe it's like the name of the wolf in Chronicles of Narnia: if you grew up with the American edition you know it as Fenris Ulf, if you ...

I'm going to apply myself fully to the point-number question. Our question, of course, is which star convention the Star of the Dunedain followed --did it symbolize the star Elendil wore on his brow ? Did it symbolize Arnor? Ardethain? The line of kings, as the seven stars did? or something else? Do...

The last trek I did, a year and a month ago, we ate mostly what we found for three days, supplemented by a little rice we brought along. We ate several trout, some freshwater mussels (always taste like pond scum without garlic, but hey it's protein), two garter snakes, plenty of wild leeks, dandelio...

See, that's why I love my langseax. It's a sword (sort of), but it's *not* single-purpose: I can chop firewood with it, fell trees with it, etc. But then, an axe still does those things slightly better. (And I do love those bearded axes.) In a two-Ranger setup, though, you can mix it up. Andy used t...

Welcome! We used to have an initiation challenge--bring us ten orc heads on a platter, that sort of thing--but then we got some angry letters from the orc reenactors. Something about us stealing their rubber masks. :lol: And I'm an English teacher in my non-Ranger (muggle? grayscale?) life, so discu...

Do what I do--trim it just enough to get rid of the split ends, and yet to have enough to donate to Locks of Love or a similar hair donation charity (usually for chemo patients). About every two years I give away twelve inches. That should still leave you with enough for Ranger hair, if not elf hair...

Welcome! I'm voting for "we're all the sanest of people," myself. (Or perhaps, that we all are sane enough to require moments when we step out of our time and culture so as to have the chance of viewing our lives from without, a break from our own zeitgeist if you will, a chance to have th...

Great text-work, Mirimaran!

Welcome indeed! I've been cribbing off of colonial reenactors for much of my gear ideas--knapsacks, lighting, food, that sort of thing. You will find that there is indeed a lot of crossover.

I just took two white handkerchiefs, dyed one green and the other brown. They work as masks (cowboy style), bandages, headbands, small pouches, napkins (that serviette to you, Elegost), all sorts of things.

You can see me wearing mine in my signature.

This is going to be a good one! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Nicely done!