January 26th, 2010
You won’t be bringing down any castle walls with this trebuchet but it is a pretty strong floor model sized siege engine. It hurls a tennis ball.
The big thing I focused on with this trebuchet is “fast and easy”. I wanted to try to put together a powerful treb without all the hassle. And this fits the bill pretty good. It took me a few hours to design and make it. You should be able to build it in a couple of hours. I try to improvise all common parts and it uses just a few pieces of two by four and two barbells for a total counterweight of 20 pounds.
The project is located here and I will be posting to that page a youtube video explaining more and showing it firing off. The Tennis Ball Trebuchet
Posted in By Will Kalif, Medieval Weapons, Medieval, Siege Engines | No Comments »
December 2nd, 2009
Mead is a bit of a strange brew and if you will excuse the obvious reference it is also a bit of an anachronism.
A lot of people who are interested in Medieval subjects are also very interested in Mead. But it has been my experience that very few people have actually tasted it. It isn’t readily available in your local wine shop, although, this is slowly changing over the past few years. And you can now get it online (depending on what state you live in).
And this brings me to the actual topic of this blog post. What do you do if you want to give mead a try but can’t find it local?
Yesterday I received a bottle of Peach Mead from Hidden Legend Winery and of course, I had to break it open. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is gentle and flavorful and it seems to me that this mead is a great introduction to the art and craft of mead. It has that distinct Mead taste and it has what I consider to be what makes mead beautiful and unique. It has that ability to morph itself to a wide palette of flavors. This is the real beauty of mead as compared to regular wine from grapes. Mead is a blank canvas that lends itself to flavoring. You can get mead in just about any flavor imaginable from Cranberries to pumpkin, apple, pear, and well you get the idea.
But there is one little thing about mead you should know. It has the long standing reputation of being a strong brew that will put hair on your chest, and there is a bit of truth to this. Mead can have a bit of a bite, all depending on the recipe. So, in my opinion, you have to find a mead that is a bit gentler. And the peach mead from Hidden Legend fits this requirement perfectly, it is a subtle mead that will give you a good sense of peach and of what mead is truly all about - in my opinion anyway.
So, if you are looking to try Mead for the first time i recommend you get two bottles. First you should get a bottle of plain mead which is just honey-wine; This way you get to taste a basic mead; and second you should get a bottle of flavored mead so you can experience what mead truly is all about. Here are a couple of resources for you. Mead makes a great conversation piece come holiday visiting.
Hidden Legend Winery - They are in Montana and ship to roughly 15 states so you should check their list of states to see if they can ship to you. And, the delivery has to be signature accepted by someone over 21 years of age - You can’t let the kids take this delivery!
And, if you don’t already know, I have a mead making site where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about making mead, including lots of video tutorials. The Joy of Mead.
Wassail! and you will get your mead in time for the holidays
Here is the label of the Peach Mead I just tried:

Posted in By Will Kalif, Websites, mead | No Comments »
December 1st, 2009
In february a new video game is being released called Dante’s Inferno
and it looks like it is going to be a terrific game. It is based on one third of the Triptych poem by Dante, the Inferno (Hell). One of the most interesting things about this video game is the ease of creativity that came with it. It is almost as if Dante were designing a video game when he wrote the Divine Comedy. And it is easy to see how the story could be adapted to a video game.
First off it has an overarching theme “Beatrice has been kidnapped to the depths of hell and our hero “Dante” has to enter and rescue her. - pretty much a perfect overall theme.
Secondly, Hell is broken down into nine levels. Hmmm… can it get any more video game than that? Nine levels to battle through and each level with it’s own theme like Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Violence etc.
Finally when you are making a video game a lot of thought has to go into the environment or world that the game takes place in. Will it be set in a medieval world? A far-off planet? In the case of this game it takes place in what might be the best environment of all - Hell! Does it get any better than that?
An awful lot has been made of Joseph Campbell’s Heroes Journey. And well, it’s a great idea and a near perfect formula that just about every epic fantasy book or movie follows. Heck, even stuff that is not epic fantasy follows the Heroes Journey. But, it seems to me that Dante had this formula figured out a full seven hundred years earlier!

Posted in By Will Kalif, Games, Reviews | No Comments »
November 28th, 2009

I have spent the past couple of days working on the medieval website and have added a lot of things.
These things include:
All in all I have done a lot of work on the medieval websites in the past couple of days! Buzz on over and take a peek: All Things Medieval
Also, if you are a mead maker I have made a couple of additions to the mead making website which include Mugs, Goblets and wine glasses for mead drinking.
So, what else have I been up to?
Lot of stuff going on with me and I am still on track to finish my next novel (The Left Handed Sword) by the end of this calendar year. I am also quite a bit done with a new book on how to make fantasy dioramas. Lot of it complete but I am not sure when it will be published. I also am working on a how to make mead book. Lots of fun stuff coming
Posted in By Will Kalif, Books, Websites, Medieval Weapons, Medieval, mead | No Comments »