Ian McCollum is the founder, editor, and presenter of Forgotten Weapons, a decade-old online web site and video archive dedicated to preserving firearms history. His work with firearms includes a particular speciality in French arms which has led him to a deep interest in collecting these weapons. He hopes this work will help give these arms the recognition and appreciation they deserve, and so often do not receive.

Titles:

Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles, 1866 – 2016

Pistols of the Warlords: Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 – 1949

Small Arms of WWII: United States of America

Small Arms of WWII: Soviet Union

Jonathan Ferguson is Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the United Kingdom and a Technical Specialist with Armament Research Services (ARES). He is responsible for curating a collection which spans the full history of firearms, from the handgun of medieval times to the latest modular assault rifles. His research interests include the use and effects of firearms and the history of British military small arms. He has previously published several articles, reports, and books on these topics.

Titles:

Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms, 1901 – 2020

N.R. Jenzen-Jones is Headstamp Publishing's Director of Research, the Director of Armament Research Services (ARES), and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Reduction of Firearms Crime, Trafficking and Terrorism. His research fields include small arms and light weapons (SALW), small- and medium-calibre ammunition, incendiary weapons, hand grenades, emergent arms technologies, and conventional arms proliferation. He is a certified armourer and ammunition collector, and a member of several professional organisations.

Titles:

The Emir’s New Rifles: A History of the Kabul Arsenal, 1885 – 1925

Vernon Easley is a retired military analyst and Lead Systems Engineer for government programs. His interest in 19th century Victorian arms and, by extension, indigenous Afghan production of Martini rifles and other firearms of the period, was sparked during the two years he spent in Afghanistan. Scouring the bazaars of Kabul and seeking out local sources for information, he discovered a scarcity of reliable data on the firearms found there. In the decade since, he has dedicated himself to the relentless pursuit of information on all types of service-issued Martini rifles. With access to one of the largest Martini-type rifle collections in the world, his attention to detail and analytic abilities have already generated substantial new insights into the identification and interpretation of Martini rifles from around the world.

Titles:

The Emir’s New Rifles: A History of the Kabul Arsenal, 1885 – 1925

John E. Plimpton is a prominent Japanese sword collector and retired antiques dealer. His Japanese sword collection is believed to be the second-largest of its kind in the United States—John owns one of nearly every known type of Japanese sword officially issued from 1873 to 1945. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he served in the U.S. Navy for three years during the Vietnam War. Subsequently, John worked at the Petersen Automotive Museum and at the Martin B. Retting, Brass Rail, and Collector’s Armoury gun stores. John has been a member of the Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai (NBTHK), Nanka Tōken Kai – Southern California Japanese Sword Society, the To-Ken Society of Great Britain, and The Japanese Sword Society of the United States (JSSUS). One of John’s hobbies is flying in Second World War fighter and bomber aircraft.

Titles:

Swords of the Emperor: A Guide to the Identification of Imperial Japanese Swords, 1873 – 1945

Ben E. Nicholson is Professor Emeritus at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his career has engaged architecture, art, design, and popular culture. Exhibitions and publications include his designs of visionary houses, primitive geometry, labyrinths, and landscapes. Research publications are on the artist Michelangelo, Modern architecture in New Harmony, military culture and include articles in Man at Arms for the Gun and Sword Collector and guest editing CLOG + GUNS. He wrote a political satire about ‘9/11’. Ben taught a class on firearms at The School of the Art Institute Chicago from 2015–2019 and at Cornell University in 2017. He divides his time between New Harmony, Indiana and Melbourne, Australia.

Titles:

Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler

Patrick Ian Howe Phillips was born in the German city of Bremerhaven in 1989, before being raised in Wayne County, Missouri. At seventeen he joined the United States Army, later serving in Afghanistan from 2012–2013 as a combat engineer. After leaving the Army, he attended nursing school and currently works as a registered nurse. Patrick has collected militaria since childhood and for the past several years has focused his collecting on Japanese militaria, especially personal items and field equipment. As a member of several Japanese militaria collectors’ groups, he often contributes articles on a range of collecting topics. Patrick lives in Missouri with his wife, Chelsi, and daughters, Lauren and Eleanor.

Titles:

Tobacco of the Emperor: A Guide to Imperial Japanese Cigarettes, Pipes, Matches & Accessories

László Becz is a former Hungarian Army technician and EOD specialist who served in the Hungarian Army Central Firing Range for twelve years between 1992–2004. He has been an aviation, military, and arms enthusiast since childhood, and has spent decades researching Hungarian-made small arms that were used from the end of the Second World War through the early 2000s. He is the author of several other books focusing on Hungarian military edged weapons, small arms manufacturing, and nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. In writing this book, Mr. Becz has drawn on nearly 30 years of collecting and analyzing information, documents, and photographic evidence related to the history of Hungarian AK-pattern firearms manufacturing.

Titles:

Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian AK-Pattern Firearms, 1959 – 2002