12/02/2018
It is with joy, a touch of sadness, but most of all humility, that Jim and I announce imminent closing of New Stirling Arms as a waster manufacturer in March of 2019.
We officially retired from attending public events and faires in 2016 and began what is probably Jim's greatest challenge yet; renovating our 100+ year old home in the Gold Rush country of the Sierra foothills. Friends, we have pulled square nails out of this house! Jim recently finished producing custom, wood sash windows and they are exquisite. It is a new adventure unfolding and we are having a great time.
If you intend to make a purchase from us in the near future, please do so before March 1 as the website will officially go dark mid March. After that, all regular production will cease entirely. All swords made in this final period of construction will have a -19 in their serial number signifying that they are the last of their kind. Jim may be available for custom work on a case-by-case basis as time and energy allow. You may reach us at this email to make such inquiries.
We will forever be profoundly grateful to all of our customers throughout the past 17 years, most especially those of you who were so influential in the early years as Jim developed his art. In particular we would like to thank John Clements and the amazing men and women of ARMA Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, including Stewart Feil and the incomparable cook in Houston, Texas, Steaphen Fick of the fantastically successful Davenriche European Martial Artes in Santa Clara, Paul Tosetti and Melissa Tosetti of the Tosetti Institute of MMA & Fitness in Redwood City, Miles Robinson for envisioning the swift, German long sword waster, and Cameron Smith for lots of sanding. Without you all, we could never have done what we did....
5301 wasters, including
901 hand and a half long wasters, our most popular waster
463 German wasters, with 33,825 views, the most views of any item on our website
62 Mainz rudius (rudii?) sold to the Pentagon for the departing Harvard Strategists
332,283 website views, not including catapults
264 events in 6 states
Website sales in all 50 states and 14 countries (including Russia, Finland and Greece)
Most expensive waster ever sold: The very first balanced waster for $1700 at a RESCU auction in 2016
Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything from the bottom of our hearts.
Love,
Jim Colgate and Tina Bailey
