What is Swallowtail Smithy

It began long ago, in a land far away for most, the like of which you will not find in the world today. There was the University of Millsaps, its business school known far and wide, full of the bounties of academic thought and expression, a haven of exploration and self-discovery.

For me, this school housed a place that influenced my life greatly, the Theta Eta Zeta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha. Stronghold of individuality, a place of tolerance and acceptance. Where the Lambda Chi Armorsmith would begin his journey.

In those wonderful corridors and with the aid of my brothers I learned I could take my nerdy interests and combine them with building skills to do something different.

It started with a leather makers kit from Hobby Lobby and a badly made leather journal and it ended with being a licensed Lambda Chi Alpha vendor.

Leatherworking led to making D&D dice bags for my brothers. Leather armor work birthed steel armor smithing. The interest in the medieval, Lord of the rings and Durin’s folk led to shield making and woodworking. This led to making furniture for brothers and being the brother in charge of general repairs in the fraternity house. When my brothers would keep me up at 2AM partying I would awake at 8AM to start working my anvil, it was a fair trade. As the only brother in the house capable of building or repairing anything they had to tolerate me.

After college it was still only a hobby and not a public one. Eventually I was convinced to start making videos and the Smithy was born. Named after a type of butterfly we learned to raise during the pandemic to keep ourselves occupied, my aim was always to make stuff that I thought was cool. Functional fantasy armor was first. I always loved the trooper armor from Star Wars. However, I also thought it was really boring to only make foam and plastic costume armor, I wanted steel armor, less costume more real.