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Calipers - Essential knife Tool

My favourite a 6" dial with a .100 black and white face

 
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Great low cost high quality option for knife makers!
 
Payment processing Problems




Today we want to make public a an issue that is threatening our existence as a company, and that other sword and weapon makers are threatened by as well. On May 21st, 2025 our credit card processor told us that we were no longer their customer due to a "business decision". This was unfortunate as it meant we could not take any orders over the Memorial Day weekend, but we quickly found another bank to service our credit card processing.

After about a week, the new bank also dropped us and informed us that we had been added to the Mastercard MATCH-list, which effectively made it impossible for any credit card processor to work with us.
Here is a legal blog about the MATCH-list and why it is so insidious:https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/...
This was quite a shock as we have accepted credit cards for payment for over forty years, and since the vast majority of orders since Covid have been via credit card. Additionally, as makers of historical weapons we cannot use PayPal, Venmo, or any of the other fintech processing companies as they explicitly ban the sale of any kind of weapons and we were previously banned from PayPal for so doing. See this previous blog about how being banned from PayPal went down:https://ownr18g4p1e54uvz-22664872010....and how it impacted our sister organization The Oakeshott Institute: https://ownr18g4p1e54uvz-22664872010....

Since being MATCH-listed we have been almost entirely unable to take payment from our customers, aside from a few orders that mysteriously went through our website. It took until last Saturday to discover what had happened, all while trying to prepare for the Bristol and Minnesota Renaissance Festivals, one of which starts July 5th, and the other in August. As of today we have found a work-around that we THINK will allow us to take credit cards at the events (which make up about half of our annual sales). We are still unable to accept credit cards on our website, though we are hopeful that this will soon be fixed.

We were apparently added to this list by our old processor, North American BanCard for allegedly violating Mastercard's standards by shipping "cold weapons" to the United Kingdom. The items we have shipped to the UK in the past year include a training Montante, and a spear, and a book by Ewart Oakeshott. All of these are legal in the UK. We have no idea how the determination was made that we had broken some kind of rule, what the exact wording of the rule is, or who decided that we ought to be banned from accepting any credits cards for the next five years.

Check out this video by our friend and colleague Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria on UK sword rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7Mt...Some folks have the impression that we are a big company because we have been leaders in the field of historical weapons for a long time. In fact, we are six people researching, hand-making, and selling historical replicas. Small businesses like ours do not typically have the resources to fight this kind of crazy, unilateral action, though we are doing our best to pull through.Anyhow, watch our video to find out what has happened, what might still happen, and how we are attempting to resolve this issue.

For the time being we are not shipping anything to the UK, not least because we can't take payment except via cash at the moment.This video also features copious swearing, put in your earphones and chase the kiddies out of the room.Thank you all for your continued support as we try to figure out how to get through this stupidity.Anyhow, take a look at our website, but if you try to order from the site it will not work. https://www.arms-n-armor.comJust drop us an email instead and we will put you in the queue and take payment later when this is resolved. Put "order" in your subject line and send queries to aa@arms-n-armor.com-----------------------------------

Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armour and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985.
 
12345678910 said:
Payment processing Problems




Today we want to make public a an issue that is threatening our existence as a company, and that other sword and weapon makers are threatened by as well. On May 21st, 2025 our credit card processor told us that we were no longer their customer due to a "business decision". This was unfortunate as it meant we could not take any orders over the Memorial Day weekend, but we quickly found another bank to service our credit card processing.

After about a week, the new bank also dropped us and informed us that we had been added to the Mastercard MATCH-list, which effectively made it impossible for any credit card processor to work with us.
Here is a legal blog about the MATCH-list and why it is so insidious:https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/...
This was quite a shock as we have accepted credit cards for payment for over forty years, and since the vast majority of orders since Covid have been via credit card. Additionally, as makers of historical weapons we cannot use PayPal, Venmo, or any of the other fintech processing companies as they explicitly ban the sale of any kind of weapons and we were previously banned from PayPal for so doing. See this previous blog about how being banned from PayPal went down:https://ownr18g4p1e54uvz-22664872010....and how it impacted our sister organization The Oakeshott Institute: https://ownr18g4p1e54uvz-22664872010....

Since being MATCH-listed we have been almost entirely unable to take payment from our customers, aside from a few orders that mysteriously went through our website. It took until last Saturday to discover what had happened, all while trying to prepare for the Bristol and Minnesota Renaissance Festivals, one of which starts July 5th, and the other in August. As of today we have found a work-around that we THINK will allow us to take credit cards at the events (which make up about half of our annual sales). We are still unable to accept credit cards on our website, though we are hopeful that this will soon be fixed.

We were apparently added to this list by our old processor, North American BanCard for allegedly violating Mastercard's standards by shipping "cold weapons" to the United Kingdom. The items we have shipped to the UK in the past year include a training Montante, and a spear, and a book by Ewart Oakeshott. All of these are legal in the UK. We have no idea how the determination was made that we had broken some kind of rule, what the exact wording of the rule is, or who decided that we ought to be banned from accepting any credits cards for the next five years.

Check out this video by our friend and colleague Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria on UK sword rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7Mt...Some folks have the impression that we are a big company because we have been leaders in the field of historical weapons for a long time. In fact, we are six people researching, hand-making, and selling historical replicas. Small businesses like ours do not typically have the resources to fight this kind of crazy, unilateral action, though we are doing our best to pull through.Anyhow, watch our video to find out what has happened, what might still happen, and how we are attempting to resolve this issue.

For the time being we are not shipping anything to the UK, not least because we can't take payment except via cash at the moment.This video also features copious swearing, put in your earphones and chase the kiddies out of the room.Thank you all for your continued support as we try to figure out how to get through this stupidity.Anyhow, take a look at our website, but if you try to order from the site it will not work. https://www.arms-n-armor.comJust drop us an email instead and we will put you in the queue and take payment later when this is resolved. Put "order" in your subject line and send queries to aa@arms-n-armor.com-----------------------------------

Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armour and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985.
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Update





Jul 21, 2025

Good news everybody, Arms and Armor can take credit cards again. After a harrowing six weeks without merchant services due to a totally unjust action by our former bank, and totally crazy Mastercard rules, we are back!
Our attorney's helped us to work out a deal with a service provider while we sue the jerks who put us on the Matchlist (see this previous post for an explanation of what happened:

This whole saga definitely isn't over for us, but having a way to take payment sure helps. If you've been waiting to order something from us until you could pay with a card, your time has arrived. Check out all of our products and know that when you decide what you want, we will be able to take payment.https://www.arms-n-armor.comAs always, our swords are entirely made by us, by hand, at our shop in Minneapolis, MN.

The blades are hand ground of 6150 carbon steel, hardened and tempered to 50-52 Rockwell. All of our products are made to look, feel, and function just like the historical originals on which they are based. Arms & Armor is dedicated to quality and authenticity. For over four decades we have worked with museums, collectors, and scholars around the world to develop a deep understanding of European weapons; knowledge we use to make products that exemplify the finest qualities of the very best historic pieces.

When we select historic items to reproduce, being pretty isn't enough, they have to move with grace and beauty, and beg to be used when in the hand. These are pieces that feel as good as they look, and that work as well as they feel. Our mission is to craft items that recreate the look, feel, and function of the best historic originals

Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985



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