The Armour Archive

hrolf

Pretty much none of them. Vises are typically cast iron and so "fragile". (esp the modern chinese ones!) Except for blacksmith's post or "leg" vises that are actually designed for hammering on and bending against (and are often *cheaper* than a fragile machinist vise...) Thomas ...

hrolf

Eltz-Kempenich wrote:Does mail seriously take that much of the punch out of blows?

Yeah, it does. My hip protection is my mail and a pair of mcdavid thudd shorts. Never so much as gotten a bruise there since i started wearing it.

hrolf

the split "norman style" tunics existed. They're not usually constructed the way sca folks make 'em though.

The ones i've seen are constructed similarly to the boksten tunic; they have had front and side gores put in - and then the front and rear gores were split. Long sleeves only.

hrolf

maille!

hrolf

not offhand; i think you'll find two major things first:

- first, armor changed a LOT in that time period regardless of culture or location.

- second, "celtic" as a useful descriptor of one or more cultural group(s) stops being useful by about 600-800AD.

hrolf

a cold chisel will also work remarkably well. I'm always surprised at how fast it goes.

hrolf

dikes.

hrolf

that whole "plague" thing really shifted the iconography a bit, didn't it?

hrolf

hrolf

Yup. This is why most sane doctors, nurses, and paramedics all have malpractice insurance.

getting sued as a medical professional is not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.

hrolf

Odo of the Abbey of Saint wrote:Dude, no hurry on mine. Don't mess yourself up so bad you can't do this anymore.

Odo

what he said. Next time i'm doing melee is damn near may.

hrolf

I used to wear crash pads. I found them to do strange things to my profile, in that my thighs looked super fat, but they protect reasonably well. You'll bruise up some. Now i wear a hauberk that goes to my knees and slimmer mcdavid hexpad shorts, and i'm much happier. I keep the thudd shorts around ...

hrolf

Ogedei wrote:
Galfrid atte grene wrote:You can deburr the edges with a simple hand file.

he's not wrong... it'll take a while if you have 500 plates or something, though.

there are also deburring tools which may be faster. May not be great for hard metals though.

hrolf

files are good for you. they build character.

you do need some way of immobilizing the piece while you work on it, though - which usually means a machinist's vise or similar.

I like hand tools a LOT more than i like powered tools. Bench grinders give me the heebie-jeebies.

hrolf

Mondor wrote:
Parlan wrote:I'm having a reception problem with my wireless computer network. Does anyone have some wi-fi spray they're willing to let go of cheap?

You may want to try some packet lube. Not a solution, but it can help.

the only real solution is to spend more time booting up.

hrolf

send me:

- 10 giant lobster claws
- the first spine from 3 cacti
- a diamond worth no less than 1,000GP

and allow 2d6 weeks for R&D.

I'll teleport it back to you.

hrolf

the only good one i have, and i'm totally hidden by my kite shield.

hrolf

hmm.

I've tried spray cooking oil and WD40 by getting the work just shy of dull red then spraying. Both took a few coats.

I've been able to oil quench mild pieces in a big old vat of peanut oil i use for hardening tool steels with more rapid effect - only had to do it once or twice.

hrolf

I have some Bates EMT boots i got through thefirestore. I've had 'em since 2003, haven't killed them yet.

hrolf

mmm, stabbydagger. I'm thinking of appropriate things to burn into the handle. maybe "...who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight" ?

hrolf

basically any oil + heat will do the trick. You'll get slightly different colors/effects, but you're doing exactly the same thing as what you do when you season a cast-iron skillet. Cold blues have a different mechanism, though.

hrolf

I noticed a while back that Meuratic acid (or however it's spelled) is concentrated hydrochloric acid -- HCl and water. Bleach is pretty much the same stuff, just less concentrated; a whole lot more water. So just the other day I had some new cutouts in need of mill scale removal. No meuratic acid ...

hrolf

There are two types of pavise: footman's pavise(the stuff shown above), and crossbowman/pikeman pavise(barn doors with spikes). One was designed for one-on-one combat on foot, the other for defending a crouching crossbowman or for building a "fence" of shields. neat! Well, i feel dumb now.

hrolf

Vladimir wrote:Nice.

You know, you might be able to go into business printing out heraldry that is too complex for people to paint (or for people too lazy to paint).

yeah. i was going to say, where do i send Nissan the high-resolution PDF in the shape of a kite shield?

hrolf

I'm confused: Pavises are the shields the size of barn doors that were carried by support troops for crossbowmen, right? How is anything posted in this thread so far representative of that idea? I see lots of neat shields, but nothing that needed a spiked tripod to hold it up...

hrolf

Sean Powell wrote:Galfried at Grene has one.

Sorry the Pic is hosted on FaceBook. If he wanders by the thread perhaps he can host it elsewhere.

Sean

Right click, select "copy image location" (not "copy link location"), and it's referencable anywhere with img tags. no account/login required.

hrolf

spray cooking grease works similarly. And, your helm smells like thanksgiving!

hrolf

heh. smithery is a weird word for 'blacksmithing'.

hrolf

Niall Mor wrote:Check out ski suppliers. The ones I have are from the 70s but they were definitely ski socks.

i wouldn't bother. everyone's moved to smartwool boot-high socks.

hrolf

i needed me a spear backup stabbeh. I didn't expect one with so pretty a handle.

hrolf

dibs on numbah 3.

hrolf

Then one guy decided to study Masai, who, along with Inuit, have the highest fat/meat/protein intakes of any people on the planet. Nope, less disease than industrial populations. Then he brilliantly decided to study recent Masai immigrants to the UK and the US, and, low and behold, the more time th...

hrolf

There is absolutely nothing good about the 'mac' in mac and cheese except how it tastes. Nothing. There is absolutely nothing good about so-called 'whole grain bread' that you can't get elsewhere in a far more efficient package and without the processed-food drawbacks. Cereals, bread, rice, white p...

hrolf

I want to reiterate that a proper diet is of enormous benefit. What you want to aspire to is 'eating clean' - lots of meat, veggies, some fruit. Avoid breads / pastas / rice / potatoes / sugar. Look down at your plate when you eat - if it looks like something a caveman might have consumed, you are ...

hrolf

i define a brownout as temporary hypoxic visual impairment, typically due to applied force of some kind - a blow, high gees, etc. Total visual loss is a grey-out.

I've greyed out, but never while fighting. Orthostatic hypotension (feeling woozy when you stand up rapidly) is weird.

Re: Adventures in Chemistry