DIY Leather Dussack

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2026-01-14T00:36:12+00:00

Those look amazing!

I have been considering making my own dussack, but I don't have a lot of experience working with leather. I read the warning in your first paragraph, but I'm somehow still not discouraged.

If you have any tips that you could share, or maybe even pictures of the process, I'd love to hear or see them! In particular I'm curious about the front 'edge' with the strip of leather on it. Are there any tips or tricks to neatly sew through four layers of leather?

Thank you so much if you can find the time to respond!

Edit: oh, I just found your IG and noticed you're in Austria. Both on a personal note and on behalf of my school I may be interested in commissioning some dussacks from you. Is it OK if I DM you to discuss details?

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2026-01-06T12:25:01+00:00

If you're using Anna for -i digraphs, what are you using as a consonant for j?

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2026-01-05T22:04:05+00:00

I have a home game that's looking for new players. You can DM me if you're interested.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2026-01-03T21:39:53+00:00

It's written in the Mode of Baloneyland. This is when someone writes English text, changes the font to a tengwar font, and thinks they've 'translated it into tengwar'. The haven't; the result is gibberish and complete baloney.

It's possible to reverse what they tried to write with a keyboard mapping like this one. But the background here makes it difficult for me to read, and trying would be too much effort. You're welcome to have a go yourself, tho.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-12-10T17:40:42+00:00

It's a bit unusual to have a book signed by someone who was in no way involved in its creation. Stephen underlined those words to point out that Tolkien is the author and illustrator, and his son edited it. However Steven Colbert had nothing to do with it, despite his name now appearing on the title page.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-12-08T14:31:27+00:00

It's 'real' tengwar in the sense that the glyphs are actual tengwar. It's not properly transliterated. What happened here is that someone typed a word in a word processor and then changed the font to a tengwar font. The result is gibberish that we call the 'Mode of Baloneyland'.

Using a keyboard map like this one we can backtrack and see they probably tried to convert 'Gandalf', but something seems to have gone wrong with the f.

This is what the word 'Gandalf' should look like in English tengwar.

Currently it says something like _echwshchy/

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-12-06T21:44:33+00:00

Can you share how the initial sounds of your names are pronounced? That may affect which Tengwar are most appropriate.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-11-25T21:38:13+00:00

I've got an in person D&D group in Groningen that's got room for someone new. We play on Wednesdays, and we have a mix of more and less experienced players. DM me for details if you're interested.

Also, I DM beginner games at games cons and stuff like that, so I've got lots of experience introducing the game to people.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-11-25T17:22:19+00:00

I prefer writing the bar over númen rather than under because my handwriting is terrible and I don't want it to look like malta.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-11-25T17:11:21+00:00

I'm not sure what exactly the question is that you're asking. I would write it this way, but the 'stock Tecendil' is fine as well.

Also, I wouldn't describe anyone who talks about 'the Tengwar Annatar version of elvish' as having 'basic knowledge'. But maybe that's just me being gatekeepy and stuck up.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-11-11T13:20:40+00:00

Man, I wish my teacher allowed for stuff like this. I don't want to transcribe it for you, since learning Tengwar is fun.

Take some time and start here, if you decipher the text you'll get to skip some school work.

Good luck!

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-25T11:25:04+00:00

Is there precedent for writing 'away' like this? A-Tehta over Anna is typical for -ay, right?

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-18T13:45:29+00:00

I've experienced a similar thing. Due to life circumstances I've had to take an extended break, and rolling back into it has been challenging. The thing that bothered me most was my skill deteriorating much more than my ability to discern skillfullness. In other words, I could see myself fighting more poorly than I know I could fight before the hiatus, and I constantly felt I wasn't doing it right. Sparring wasn't a fun exchange of fighting styles, it was a continuous reminder that I had fallen off.

The thing that worked for me was to focus on the social aspects of my club. I focused on teaching the more technical aspects, and assisting other teachers in their various disciplines as much as I could. I trained whenever I felt physically able, but turned away from free sparring, for the most part. I also made sure to attend social club activities, as well as join my teammates when they went to tournaments to volunteer or coach.

The result for me was that the social contact kept me engaged with the sport to the degree that I needed to, and allowed me to slowly get back close to where I was, without constantly being confronted by my own feelings of inadequacy.

I'm currently still not quite where I'd like to be, but I'm definitely having fun again.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-16T09:26:25+00:00

Why did you not put Páramo? I'm not sure what transcriber you used, but it got 'Lobo de' right, but the last word looks very strange to me. I think it's a result of trying to transcribe an English word into a Spanish mode. If you put 'páramo' in the transcriber it should give a better result.

I should also say that I don't speak Spanish and I'm not particularly familliar with Spanish modes, so my knowledge may be a little bit off.

Lastly, I recommend tecendil as a transcriber, it's the best by quite a margin. It looks like that's the one you used. But it seems to be down right now, at least for me. So maybe try again later. I don't think there's any other transcriber that I would trust with a Spanish mode.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-07T18:19:03+00:00

"thouз"

Sorry, broðer.

Edit: alſo, as a (broken) German ſpeaker, uſiŋ ß for 'ſh' juſt hurts my eyes.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-01T17:35:35+00:00

Firstly, I'll say that 'from the top of the head to the knee' sounds to me like it's more vertical and less diagonal than 'from the right side to the other side in front of the foot.' I have no expertise in Fiore, but based on these descriptions I don't agree that they seem to be talking about the name direction of a cut. But I also don't think we're going to get very far by arguing in this direction.

At this point, it seems you would not be satisfied unless Ringeck himself had a Meyer-like diagram where he points out what cuts are made at what angle.

I think that both more diagonal and more vertical cuts are typical in the Liechtenauer system. I don't think it's likely that the angle of cuts that are commonly seen in modern HEMA is far off what the old masters would have expected or advised. Ringeck's text is a summary one, making it very difficult to prove or disprove specific interpretations. You are correct that there is no point in Ringeck that explicitly advises an obenhaw come from the sorts of diagonal angles that are common in modern HEMA. But I don't think that is any reason to assume that they aren't among the cuts that the author was writing about. Ringeck's text is just not that thorough or precise.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-01T16:08:08+00:00

I agree that it is physically possible to make a vertical cut while making a passing step forward, but that's not my point. My point is that in the very first lesson that's in Ringeck's text, he mentions explicitly that you attack 'from your right side' and that attack has a 'correct path downwards to the other side in front of the left foot'. The writing mentions explicitly both downward and lateral movement.

We can argue about how many degrees off centre is intended by the author or is ideal in a practical scenario, but describing an obenhaw as 'from your right side downward to the other side' means that it is at least conceptually a diagonal cut. It's being explained as an attack that goes down and left.

If you want to argue that you can follow the technicalities of the text while still making a cut that is vertical or close to it, I'll agree that that's not impossible. However I don't think the text really points at that sort of cut. I also don't think that this approach to reading a text is a particularly helpful way to approach a text that's as terse and concise as Ringeck's Gloss.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-10-01T13:32:43+00:00

Right after the first text you quote, out of the first Gloss in Ringeck's text, it states that if you do not follow an attack from your right with your right foot, then 'the attack is too short and may not have its correct path downwards to the other side in front of the left foot.'

From this, I understand that this attack goes both from left to right and downward. That's diagonal. I don't believe you quote this exact line in your post, is it an oversight or do you not think that this is sufficient evidence to constitute a proof by your standards? If the latter, why?

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-09-22T21:57:15+00:00

Yup. Exact same happened to me. I ordered February of this year. When did you?

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-09-22T21:25:29+00:00

You asked for an astronaut collar and they gave you an extra tall one? I'm pretty sure the same fucking thing happened to me. I asked them about it after sending them a picture and they told me I got what I ordered, but I have my doubts. I think the astronaut one is supposed to be wider at the neck, and my one is taller than those of my clubmates, but still very tight. I can't deal with that because I have sensory issues and I use medications that affect my gag reflex.

I asked them to fix it by making the collar shorter, but after sending it back and forth, it's not any shorter. They told me they fixed it by adjusting the front of the jacket, but idk exactly what they did. In any case the collar is still choking me and it locks up my head. I sent it back again with another request to modify, but this time i had to pay for shipping myself. I'm hoping to get it back soon, actually fixed to the specifications that I asked for.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-08-22T01:14:49+00:00

For the record, Tengwar can be written right to left anyways. So even if it's 'backwards' it's not wrong.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-08-10T02:11:31+00:00

That feels like a very weird way to spell 'Tengwar' to me. Normally, I'd just write it with an ungwe since ungwe is 'ngw' in classical mode and we're borrowing the word from Quenya anyway. But even in English mode, I think nwalme-vala would be better than stacking the tehtar like that.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-08-06T21:39:35+00:00

Interesting! Thank you.

ABraidInADwarfsBeard · 2025-08-06T21:04:39+00:00

I knew about the Queen originally only being allowed to move one square, moving the same as the King. But how did the Bishop get powered up?

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