Dunedain leather

Welcome back!

So, after my rather mediocre experience with armsofvalor.com, I hit Google again and I found Ravenswood Leather. Now, these folks seem to know that there needs to be the right mix of usability and sheer enjoyment in an outfit. After all, if someone is making a "Tralius Two" leather jerkin and has another model in a pair of snug leather pants in the middle of a swordfight, this was type of person I want!!

I spoke with the owner - Reg - and his lovely wife Larkin. "Sure, we can do that!" was his reply. We went back and forth on colors, materials, fasteners, etc. I was excited. I was happy. Things were looking up!

One thing that absolutely, positively makes me crawl the walls is lack of followup. If I get a phone call, I call back. If I get an email, I return it. When I sell on ebay, I send the seller all the tracking information. If I tell someone that I will have something done by a certain day, it's done by that day and they get verbal or written confirmation. It's just good business sense. I'm organized.

Reg is truly an artist, but he absolutely no sense of deadlines or managing expectations. He can't seem to grasp the concept "I have a deadline and I have to raise a warning flag if I'm going to miss it." How does this guy pay his bills???? I would ask for an estimated completion date and after it came and went, we would start the neverending followup call:

"Hi Larkin, what happened? The items were supposed to ship on Tuesday"
"Oh, we got busy ... so sorry! We'll get it out next week!"
"OK, send me the tracking number when you ship? {sigh}"
...
"Reg ... where's the stuff?"
"Oh, man. I don't know where my head's been at. I promise I'll finish everything this week"
...
"Larkin -- tracking number????"
"Whoops! Let me check ... oh, here it is ....didn't you get it"
"No, that's why I'm calling you again..."

Reg has done a number of leather outfits for me, notably the Aragorn duster, undertunic and black leather pants. The stuff feels WONDERFUL and fits great. He's also done a Boromir surcoat, and a Faramir cuirass and pants. I've also gotten Boromir/Aragorn and Faramir bracers and belts from him.

The big problem here is timing. Reg can't meet deadlines - even if the deadlines are 6-9 months in advance. If you're willing to wait (and wait and wait) and make constant followup calls, he can't be beat.