Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I guess it's time to go public with this... I've finally gotten a fair amount of my Shapeways work set up for easy purchase.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/northern-star-creations
I confess I do have a small markup on most of those items in hopes of eventually making back some of my R&D costs, but the lions share of the expense comes from Shapeways itself. Production on demand is still crazy expensive, sadly. In most cases you can use steel rather than cast metals - it's perhaps not as period and might need a little more finishing, but it's a *lot* cheaper.

I can say I've ordered and am using myself:

The small buckles in raw bronze. (VERY happy with the frames, need to use 'em a bit to verify the tongues hold up, but I'm not worried)
Two of the flower stamps in steel (just posted pictures, very happy with those)
Strap Anchor and Connector in raw bronze - very happy with those and you'll be seeing "assembled" pictures in the near future)
"Ranger Swordbelt buckle" in polished nickel steel - happy so far, but I've *not* yet received the tongues-and-backplate model so can't give an honest review yet.

More coming soon!


Also I have a request. I'd like to use this store in part to route traffic back to the forum. While I don't want to suggest there's any kind of official connection - Jack, Peter: would you mind if I added the URL in the store header with a pointer back here?

Woo-HOOOOOO!!! GO ELLETH! Super exciting! Thanks for doing this!

*screams excitedly*

YES!

Came together very nicely. Well done.

For what it's worth, Shapeways just redid their pricing structure for cast metals, so I was able to drop the prices for a lot of things. Not as much as I'd like, but every little bit helps. Interestingly, they've tweaked their "multiple pieces" rules, so the small buckles are now actually cheaper to order already cut apart and individually finished. I wish they'd done that *prior* to my getting a dozen of them, but c'est la vie.


UPDATE

All steel buckle tongues have been removed.

After some experimentation, we've found the Shapeways production technique just doesn't allow the tongues to be closed properly. Heat the steel nice and glowing, try to bend it, and... it crumbles.


The cast metal versions are still in place.

Looks like my quiver project is now a couple weeks from finishing to... :/

A quick update for those considering Elleth's buckles:

I picked up all of these in nickel-steel. They come quite shiny, like a new quarter (or nickel! heh...), but after a day and a half in some diet coke:
They grey first, and then begin to progressively turn a somewhat bronzey color. The photo shows them a fair bit lighter than they actually are. A light dusting with some high-grit sandpaper and just a touch of that shine will start coming back through. Very nicely done, Elleth.

Also, I bent my buckle tongue on cold and it went with no complaints.

reeeeaaaally need to get my hand on a few of these beauties.

Also, I bent my buckle tongue on cold and it went with no complaints.

hunh.

AWESOME. I've a test print lying around I'll try that with once my craft room is back in usable order. Presuming I can duplicate your success, I'll re-enable the steel tongued buckles. Cool!


I can't wait to see what you're making.

Awesome stuff!

Elleth wrote:I can't wait to see what you're making.

I don't know what you're talking about.

"All right then, keep your secrets."

Manveruon wrote:"All right then, keep your secrets."

This has GOT to be the most quoted line on this forum.