The Armour Archive

Josh W

You don't see the metal plate under the decorative leather, Ogier?

Josh W

Okay, that's it! I want in! How do I go about founding an ARMA chapter here in NE Kansas (if there isnt already an existing one)?

I don't much care for 14th century armour. Can I use my 15th century full harness instead?

Josh W

Of course I don't talk to newbies like that. I'm not stupid. I'm just letting the off the stress built up over the last few months of beating my head against the brick wall that is the laxity and inertia of my local SCA.

"Undisciplined, whiney child", eh Bjorn?

Pot, meet kettle...

heh.

Josh W

Snob? Guilty as charged. I hate populism, and the SCA is down with a bad case of it. I still don't see what's so wrong with requiring someone to wait until they have an acceptable harness instead of rushing them onto the field ASAP in whatever it takes to get them there. If they're the sort that wil...

Josh W

"Rich folks like me"? I *am* that half-starved college student you're talking about. Ask anyone on the Archive who knows me personally. The total cost of my harness is pushing $4000, and I still managed to afford it, with a combination of careful saving, shopping around, patience, and making certain...

Josh W

I have received the following e-mail, likely in response to my earlier post on this thread. I have no idea who it came from, but I though it would be kind of me to share the wise words of this genius with you all: "Maybe I cant afford FULL STEEL HARNESS... IM not a money making man... IM not paying ...

Josh W

That's not looking too bad. This kid lives only a very short distance from me. I should drop in on him sometime.

What gauge is he making that gauntlet from?

Josh W

that knight is lying to you either about the weight of his helm or the gauge of its metal. Morgan is a big guy and if his 12ga/14ga helm weighs only 11lbs, then I can't believe this local knight of yours.

Josh W

Badass harness, both of you.

Bob, you look friggin' imposing. Any chance you'll make it to Lillies this year?

Josh W

You're talking about the Valsgarde Grave #8 find, aren't you, Calidan? Last i heard, that interpretation of the find was decided to have been incorrect, and is now believed to have been the remains of splinted limb armour, and not torso armour at all. All those Calontiri with their fake Norse "Stave...

Josh W

No way I'm going to believe a rattan "punch buckler" is more dangerous than a rattan stick swung with two hands through a wide arc. I don't care if it's Lennox Lewis punching behind the buckler. If it hurts, wear more armour.

Josh W

I fought in a riveted mail shirt for about six months in 1999. I wore no rigid protection under it, only a thick, thick felt gambeson. I was fine. Early, early in my SCA career someone had told me that this arrangement was considered list-legal and I believed him. I have yet to receive a wrap shot t...

Josh W

I'm pleased to provide the voice of foaming-at-the-mouth authenticity extremism: If your "real life situation" is such that you must use a quickie, "get-'em-on-the-field cheap" kit in order to play, thereby spoiling the game for those of us who actually have it together and give a damn, then.... ......

Josh W

The Lincoln Cathedral misericorde can be found on page 82 of Edge and Paddock's "Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight". I'm sure there are photos of both of these somewhere on the Web, but I can't remember where they were....

Josh W

Animal, I would welcome a change in the SCA combat rules that recognized that knocking him over and sticking a dagger in a gap somewhere was one of the few reliable ways to defeat a man in plate armour.

Josh W

Nah. Do something with back protection. It isn't as though people suddenly stopped wearing Coats of Plates with armoured backs and switched to wearing nothing but front-coverage-only breastplates until the invention of the one-piece backplate in the first decade of the 15th century. I recommend some...

Josh W

I agree. This harness just looks naked and silly with the limbs covered in sturdy plate, but the torso protected only by flimsy mail.

Josh W

Sir Rhys that used to hang out here?

I miss him.

...oh, and thanks, btw...

Josh W

It sounds like Uther is referring to that idiotic "Secrets of the Vikings" test from television. They used some sort of pneumatic device to fire a spear at some mail. I don't believe them when they say that spear struck with only the force equivalent to that a human can generate. If butted mail coul...

Josh W

What's so wrong with prejudicing the fight in favor of late-period armours? I'm sick of the silly populist notion that some fool in a weightlifter's belt and a spangenhelm is on equal footing with me in my plate in terms of protection. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make/buy and wear the nice,...

Josh W

I'd stand still and let some Atlantian duke hit me, full-force with a steel sword while I was in my full plate. Then I'd sneer and go fix the dent or two that resulted.

Hell, I've been dumb enough to stand still and let Dwarlock kit me with a steel sharp while wearing two riveted mail shirts...

Josh W

There used to be a LARP group in or around KC that was called "Kanar" or "Kanarr" or something like that.

http://www.kclarp.org/

[This message has been edited by Joaquin (edited 01-29-2004).]

Josh W

More affordably, Osprey's "The Swiss at War" (MAA #94) has several photos of them towards the beginning of the book.

Josh W

Are any of these guys wearing any natural fibers? I get so tired of seeing otherwise decent kits covered by tabards done in the same lousy "T-Tunic" fabric. *sigh* -Joaquin, sucking it up, and trying not to make "best" the enemy of "good"... [This message has been edited by Joaquin (edited 01-21-200...

Josh W

Splendid. There is a late 14th century-themed SCA event being held in Calontir later this year, and despite my preference for the armour from half a century later, I intend to reproduce one of these, and the rest of the harness to go with it just to wear to this event...

Josh W

"The covered breastplates were often shown worn without a back, and I have yet to see any evidence of a back on one. Breastplates from that period in general were shown worn without a back." I think I see covered breastplates worn with backs in at least one version of Dei Liberi's "Flos Duellatorum"...

Josh W

As much as I love the full-plate armour of the late fifteenth century, I have to agree with Murdock, at least as far as SCA armour is concerned. Coats-of-Plates or Brigandines are absolutely ideal for what the SCA does, and can be made, and made beautifully, with little skill and only a bit of effor...

Josh W

I'm not far away in Northeast Kansas. There is growing interest in the area in founding a local chapter/study group related to the ARMA or AEMMA or some other WMA interest group.

Josh W

I like Gaston's pavise. Now he needs to finish it so it doesn't look like an SCA aluminum shield. Pity about the rest of his kit, though I grant that he looks noticeably better than 90% of SCA fighters I've seen. What sort of body defense does he wear under that tabard? [This message has been edited...

Josh W

I hate to say so, Park, but I think you were overdue for such an accident. Your armouring "family" seems to attract that sort of unwelcome attention from armouring tools...

Josh W

Glen is cool.

Josh W

Quoth Flonzy:
"Both have their share of good and bad consumes"

...and man can those darn bad consumes be brutal!

My life has been unacceptably devoid of whimsy of late...

Josh W

Nobody punches with "20,000" psi of force, Sceotan. Wean yourself from the asiaphilia...

Josh W

I think you're only an armour slut if you dabble in more than one period or locale. If you have piles and piles of armour from one period/culture only, then it's sortakinda "keeping it in the family", if you will...

Josh W

Incidentally, I think Paul Champagne might take umbrage at not being considered a "real swordsmith". Paul gathers tamahagane from riverbeds in the Adirondacks and forges a blade just like any other "traditional" Japanese smith. Look him up before you bash him and his work, Bjorn...