Research it? Copy it? Make it? Buy it?

[Squamatus]

I started Roman reenactment in the early 1990's when 'off the shelf' kit was pretty much unobtainable, so you had to learn how to make it yourself, or hope that you could find a group where other members had the skills. I still find it more comfortable to be able to say I either made items myself, or be able to point to the person who made it for me. I feel more able to discuss items if I know how I made them in great detail, and what finds they are based on, and indeed how complete those finds were, and the extent to which I have had to fill in the unknowns.
Now that it is possible to buy items off the shelf, which can range from okay to awesome museum quality - dependant on your budget - I wondered how members of this forum felt personally about the changing experience of our shared interest? Have we lost some level of connection now that it's "easier" to take up Roman reenactment? What is preferable to you? - and I mean this as your personal feelings relating to your own presentation, not your opinion of which is best for anyone else. After all, we've all come to this at different times, and with different skill sets, knowledge and abilities.

[A_Volpe]

I started in 2001. There has been a big boost in what is available "off the shelf" that is pretty good, but it also depends on what you/your group determines is "good" or "not good". Everything I've bought pre-made I've had to modify, either to add or remove bits to improve them, as well as having to make a couple of things from scratch, trying my darnedest to copy artifacts.

In some ways I think the flood of commercially made gear is making things "worse", being that none of us are going to agree as a unified entity as to what level of quality is deemed "good" and what is not. I think it is fantastic that some of the companies that make this gear for us are trying their best to appeal to us and make gear that we want them to make, to the way we want them made, but, then again, apparently there is a level of "out of the box" and finishing that is different between the continents. Trying to make "everyone" happy is completely impossible.

So, the "current" way of some good gear and some not-so-good but fixable gear seems to be the way towards a compromise. Much like other reenacting periods, there's a lot of niche and cottage industry but there is always the people who insist/prefer to make their own stuff. I think that's fine and see it as just another aspect of the hobby.

*shrug*

[richsc]

I have been researching, learning, accumulating tools and work space, finding and buying raw materials and taking classes on how to work with this stuff, mostly because Mr. Amt's eye for details. Even he has admitted things are getting a lot better than the 1990's or early 21st Century. But then I have the work space and can afford to equip my workshop to work this out. Most of us can't do this.

I can easily combine a combination of parts, particularly if they are pretty accurate. My style in this hobby is more education then bashing, so my stuff can be more fragile. I also like the ability to explain not only how something is made, but the entire infrastructure behind how it was created (supply chains, contracts, standards, all the hidden things of which most people are ignorant) gives me a greater sense of the entire Roman world. If I just bought it some of that would not have been learned.

Still, people who want to join the hobby don't have usually have the time or skills, and want to jump in.

[Crispianus]

Been around since the seventies in re-enactment, so seen a lot of water under the bridge from a trickle to a flood, there's always been good and bad stuff about depending on what the standard was at the time, as a percentage of good and bad across the hobby generally I'm not certain anything has really changed that much, though I think its less personnel and there more of it..... don't tend to buy stuff other then the odd knick knack, I would sooner make it then buy it.....

[Martin Moser]

At least half of my fun in doing this is researching and making things myself (especially the stuff too intricate or off main stream to be made by the "big repro players), or, where I lack the skills/equipment to do so, buy from people who do and are able to catch not only the details but also the character of the original.
While it is good that the hobby becomes more affordable to people not able to spend lots of money on it, it also has the effect that the average reenactor tends to know less and less about what they are buying/wearing, up to the point where you see people that effectively are a collage of a couple of centuries (hey, this is nice, cheap and I think I've seen that officer in Ben Hur wearing it ;-))
Good and bad in everything I suppose ...

[deepeeka]

I have never been a part of a reenactment, or even attended one. ad: However, since the beginning of 2000s, it has been our endeavor to make Reenactment easier for the people and making stuff affordable for the people who take it up as a hobby. Yes, I agree it is impossible to impress one and all- and not having access to museums and correct information, we do turn things badly, but we are still trying to up the quality.

If you can afford custom made, nothing like it, else we are there for everything else.

Gagan