The Armour Archive

MattB

Fortunately they did finally take it down. sadly they still never responded to me, but it seems the photographer got somewhere. Oddly when i brought this up some folks i know suggested, hacking the site, getting loads of people to mail en masse via the site to try and crash it :S I never condone thi...

MattB

Yeah we both did, sadly I believe where they are falls outside the EU. Apparently they are a sponsor of BOTN. Would have thought they'd have plenty of other images to use!

MattB

Wasn't sure where to post this so if Mods wish to move it to an alternative thread then so be it. Last year I got into armour and posed for some photos for English Heritage, they got used to promote events but imagine my surprise when I encountered ageofcraft.com and discovered them using it on thei...

MattB

How does the faulds of the first armour work? Are there sliding rivets? It's mounted on straps? I thought the back faulds should have had more lames than the front, do you find that your solution allow plenty of movement? Usually there is one more lame in the front than the rear, though there is a ...

MattB

Here're some progress pictures of part of a full harness based on English effigies, primarily using the Hungerford effigy but the client wished to try out some unusual details from other examples so we are trying the slightly raised collar type neck to see how it works. http://farm9.staticflickr.com...

MattB

Been a few months since I shared any of my work on here, some of you may have seen it on my facebook business page or on my deviantart profile but here's some pictures for those who don't use those sites. Here's a recently completed commission for a member of a UK jousting group, an export cuirass i...

MattB

Matt if you look on my fb page the knife sheath and purse i made had lines created with the round tip of a butter knife, diamond patterns were stamped with brass punches that could easily be replaced with a nail with the tip sanded back etc, in fact I used the end of a engraver tang for making tiny ...

MattB

I'm really in the wrong country for getting steel

MattB

Saw these on sunday, very crisp work Jon, well done.

MattB

Hiya, this is Vicky on Matt's account. :-) Thank you so much for the feedback, I haven't been making costume professionally for very long, so it's very encouraging to read your comments. Can you tell us more about that patterned fabric? The fabric is of the designer upholstery sort, bought from a US...

MattB

Thanks for the compliments everyone, I have relayed all of this to Vicky who was very pleased, I shall get her to come on and answer questions on pricing when she has a chance. We had a tense few days waiting for this dress to clear in US customs, it seems sending items with fur can be a bit tricky,...

MattB

My partner Vicky recently completed a mid 15thC gown, we found a friendly museum who let us in for free to take some quick photos before we shipped it off :) If only I'd had time to make her a nice wide black belt to wear with it rather than one I had to make in 5mins before we left :S This first on...

MattB

Thanks guys. Being picky, a little more shape on the vambraces? A little more "tulip-y"? I know, these are older stock, the first set of articulated arms I'd ever made in fact. I'd do things a little different if starting from scratch now but was simply refinishing and reworking the couters for the ...

MattB

Two recently finished projects, first a pair of late 14thC breastplates in two different sizes (one adult and one larger childs) produced for a museum display for visitors to try on, i'm not sure what they'll look like after a year of handling :? Second is a set of vambraces, these are an older set ...

MattB

Graham Ashford wrote:
Closed English Helm? (not sure of the date on these)

That would be C.1485 being English they obviously hold my interest and yes I have some images

MattB

I've recently started teaching a friend from re-enactment some basic armouring techniques. He was keen to have a go so started with a plackart which he roughed out in a day spent in my shop a few weeks ago and today came over again and began work on the upper breastplate. He has no previous experien...

MattB

This was originally a blog post I did here http://matthiasmetalsmith.blogspot.co.uk/ It's written for a general audience so forgive the simplicity of the descriptions. I was approached by a friend that specializes in Anglo-Saxon metalwork recently and asked to replicate the Iron Boss of the Sutton H...

MattB

I'd had some recent troubles with my left elbow, started with twinges of pain and 24hrs later was agony and had to take pain killers and use a heat pad. I rested it for a full week before returning to hammering and found I still had to be careful as twinges came back even from light work unfortunate...

MattB

Funny that this should crop up on here, managed to finally wear both my 1/8in punches out punching CS70! Reckon I'll just be buying new rather than try and resharpen them.

MattB

Sasha_Khan wrote:Yeah, but NONE of those are meant for anything other than decoration...

A task in which they sadly fail...

MattB

Those chisel (in this case file) marks are very useful, all those lames were so close in length so it saved me scratching my head or absent mindedly getting the wrong one! Here's a more basic piece I made on tuesday due to an "armour emergency" :wink: http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/138/5/2/1...

MattB

Thanks guys. I still have the bevor here and will be delivering it next week so will get a picture of it all together, we did a test fitting and apparently visibility is good, and it looks menacing :twisted: Here is a shot of the collapsed lames, it doesn't quite show in this shot but it drops below...

MattB

Good depth to it, might be a trick of the light but watch your symmetry (very tricky in raising). Considering the size and depth you could progress onto a nice little cervelliere/skullcap as your next project.

MattB

Haven't posted any work for quite a while so thought I'd share a couple of recent pieces. Firstly is a set of spaudlers made to go with the cuirass I completed last year (cuirass can be found here http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=131660 ) The spaudlers are late 15th Century...

MattB

Here's the latest permutation is my armour: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/kaos333/DSC_0675.jpg New bucket by Albert Collins, who did amazing work on this grand bascinet. It's a hardenened and tempered medium carbon steel replica based on the famous grand bascinet on Friedrich I von der Pfal...

MattB

Daves work is very fine, if he were to describe his processes it would fill a rather large book! His Sutton Hoo helmets (yes he's made a few) are the best out there! I hope to be as good at wax modelling some day...

MattB

Graham you may want to check out my gallery here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 166&type=3 a few tombs with dates some earlier than you might think.

Matt

MattB

I thought just the same Mac, I'll be practising the wiggle work technique on my belt fittings from now on though I doubt I'll be that fast for some time!

MattB

Hi Dan, I believe you may be oin the sewing box on FB, my partner Vicky runs that page and she's done a few built on ring frames. One here http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=141477&p=2140191#p2140191 And a different example here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2953...

MattB

A cute little thing to be sure, not too small, while smaller than many bronze/silver-gilt types in art work, they could still contain some coins. Thanks for those images Mac.

Nice ring btw is it an original medieval one?

MattB

Sadly I don't have those books but have located a few examples on a pilgrim badge database, also seen some interesting different designs, I see a custom purse frame coming on in the future!

MattB

Only the larger pins are rivets here, the others are just pins set into the scales, as for accuracy that isn't the most important, or authentic thing :wink: The pins here are by no means perfectly placed, they were just marked by eye and drilled with no centre marking. Well THAT makes things much e...

MattB

One of these days I'll get so I can drill so many perfectly spaced holes. very nice. Why is that difficult? Are you using a drill-press and a center-punch? Can you center-punch accurately? Is the steel moving in the press? Is there something about the metal hardness causing your bit to walk? I've n...

MattB

Nice

MattB

Beautifull. What are the blade and handle materials? The blade was an off-cut of 0.7% carbon steel, the handle is horn and gilding metal/red brass. Oh Great, that is beautiful.... Now the one that I am making for the English Cutlery contest will look just that much more amateurish... :oops: Beautif...

Re: Age of Craft using image without consent angry

Re: Age of Craft using image without consent angry

Age of Craft using image without consent all sorted!

Re: New Italian export cuirass and some new W.I.P pics

Re: New Italian export cuirass and some new W.I.P pics

New Italian export cuirass and some new W.I.P pics

Re: How to tool leather with no leather tooling tools...????

Re: 1050 Annealed Spring Steel Group Order / Nashua, NH, USA

Re: Showing of my latest commission.

Re: Rather Posh Mid 15th Century Ladies Gown by my Lady

Re: Rather Posh Mid 15th Century Ladies Gown by my Lady

Rather Posh Mid 15th Century Ladies Gown by my Lady

Re: Late 14thC breastplates and 15th Italian vambraces (Pics

Late 14thC breastplates and 15th Italian vambraces (Pics)

Re: Different helmest to norm ...? Can you help

Armouring tuition: pics of apprentices work in progress.

Raising the Sutton Hoo Shield Boss (lotsa pics)

Re: Uninjured Armourers?

Re: Do Whitney punches get dull?

Re: WTF is this?

Re: Recent work, German Spaudlers and a Huge Bevor!

Re: Recent work, German Spaudlers and a Huge Bevor!

Re: My first attempt at Raising results. (pics)

Recent work, German Spaudlers and a Huge Bevor!

Re: 2012...Show us your kits

Re: Ganderwick Creations

Re: English gauntlets?

Re: Champlevé Enamelling video demo from V&A

Re: Instructions for Frame/Bar Purse

Re: Reconstruction medieval ring frame purse.

Re: Reconstruction medieval ring frame purse.

Re: Medieval eating knife, now with scabbard (update 13th No

Re: Medieval eating knife, now with scabbard (update 13th No

Re: New knives

Re: Medieval eating knife, now with scabbard (update 13th No