Daniel, banned from Ren faires? First I've heard about it.

What claims are you talking about? The Chi/Ki claims from the energy arts side, or the metalurgical claims that have emperical backing from the UT engineering department? One is just that, claims of energy measured by whatever mumbo jumbo they believe in. If you believe in Chi, you will. If not, you won't. However, the claims about strength and hardness are based on scientific measurement that has not been disproven or declared false. Are they overpriced? Perhaps. However, that is a far cry from what you are claiming.

Then your not well informed are you, he hasn't been allowed at most of the major one's, including one of the biggest held in maryland, in about 13 years. His name is a byword for scams and fraud in the sword world, and I'd say you need to get out more and learn more about The Angel sword scammers. And yeah, they are overpriced, way overpriced.

This is the very first I have heard of any scam or scandal attached to the folks at Angelsword. Can you provide a link to any kind of information on the subject? Forum posts, blogs, news stories. Anything?

I'm not a fan of anything they sell. I'm sure they are nice for what they are, but they would not be useful in my training and they seem expensive.

He attends three Ren-Faires a year,

Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie,
TRF in Houston, used to be largest one in the country, though they shrunk tremendously last year. Definately a major faire.
New York RF in Tuxedo, NY

For a company based outside Austin, that seems reasonable (two in Texas, one out), as Mr. Watson is (to my knowledge) on site every day of those faires, and none of them have the equipment of forging space necessary to create blades, much less the unmovable machinery for their cryogenic heat treat (though assembly and fittings are often done during the faires, as well as any repairs that are brought).

They barely have enough staff to keep up with merchandise as it is, and Mr. Watson is rather picky about his forge staff, so expansion is slow. Not going to a huge number of Ren faires isn't evidence.

I've heard nothing of any of this aside from summary dismissal with no exposition or other explanation. A search for "Angelsword banned" on Google returns nothing. Almost all are forum responses where the two words were used in completely unrelated fields. You'd think that with all these Ren Faires banning them, there would be at least a web page on one that explains why. However, there isn't.

As for being a byword. I've heard the man called a jerk or arrogant more times than I can count. However, I consider myself not completely detached from the sword world, and I haven't heard anything nearly like what you are talking about with any evidence to back it up.

Present me with evidence and I may believe you. Tell me which faires (actual names, please) he is banned from and provide a link so I may call them myself and I will. Present me with vague claims such as that and I will laugh in your face.