[Regia-NA] Roland's Letter to the North Americans Part 1

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>From Roland:

I havent been made so welcome for a long time. Pennsic
was a blast. I met so many people that I became quite
confused as to who was who but my thanks goes out to
all who made my trip such a memorable one both by just
their honest welcome as by their efforts to ensure that
I arrived in one piece.

I obviously had many preconceptions as to what Pennsic
would be but I was plainly wrong on many counts.

My apologies to any who I had made insufficient effort
to visit and talk to as well. I had little idea of the
protocols that would ensue regarding the nature of
visiting royalty. Before I knew it, I was booked to
speak to many different people at various meals and
parties and if there was another Englishman, I was duty
bound to meet them and reassure them that England was
still wet and dreary. 

George and Jeanne and their household were the perfect
hosts. Helena, Howie and Karen deserve special mention
( perhaps they were briefed to keep me entertained.). 

It was good to meet various Regia NA members and others
who had an interest, I was honoured to be amongst you
all. I will say that all in all especially as you are
cut off from the information that we over here take for
granted you are doing a great job in getting to grips
with the slippery beast that is authenticity. There is
a great deal of well made accurate material over there
it just seems that as yet the various contacts between
suppliers etc that need to be made havent happened. 

It goes without saying that certain compromises have to
be made particularly with regards to wood types and as
yet I cant say for certain what could replace what to
maintain the qualities of various timbers. You are
replete for instance with people who want to weave
their own cloth which is just fantastic more power to
their elbows its more than I would wish to do,
especially as I cant even spin to save my life.

You guys ( ladies included ) are so far in excess of
where we were when we started out and thats just as it
should be. Stand on our shoulders and use our
experience to finalise any gaps that there may be. As
you tend to be well distanced from each other, you are
also more self reliant then we tend to be over here.
Hence, you experiment more and try your hand at more
tasks that we tend to making you a cross-skilled bunch.

On general observation, shoes are one area that you
seem to have some difficulty with, but that will come
with time. There are shoes makers out there who have
just yet to get to grips with period turnshoes.

Jeff Fulton deserves a special mention too. He has
striven to get his kit and equipment up to speed, in
effect, in isolation. This man deserves a huge hug in a
very manly sense of course. Sure, there were aspects of
his kit that could be better. That goes for me just as
it does for him. Ive spent years sewing up leather this
and that which is bound to give me an advantage but
Jeff has soldiered on and is getting there. I didnt
want to end up going through peoples kit before getting
an idea of where they were coming from in the first
place. As I said previously, we have the info to hand
and can say blithely that belts were on the whole quite
narrow. If you are unfortunate enough and dont have the
reports to hand to give sizes to the finds, then you
are in danger of creating objects that are incorrectly
sized which was a problem that I heard people report.

You are quite simply getting it together. Should you
arrive at York for example, then you would fit in very
well. Before long, you will become self sufficient in
all materials and items there will organically grow
people who can readily fire weld tools etc, etc. You
have a huge advantage in the skeletal materials
department already and pelts. The impression I get is
that timber is cheaper as well just as an instance.