The Armour Archive

Sean M

Has he tried someone else's at all? I would see if he has tried it in loaner stuff before that way you could just make this one of similar thickness. Not sure how practical that would be. A Charles de Blois needs to fit very closely in the belly if it is going to function and look right. They were ...

Sean M

There is an arming doublet in the Great Wardrobe Accounts of Edward III which has a layer of satin, two layers of linen, and a pound (maybe 300 g) of cotton. I used slightly more cotton than that (1-4 layers depending on location), but the total weight is around 1300 g, and I have not fought in my a...

Sean M

Today I cut my first pair of long split hosen in wool, pinned one loosely, put it on, and started moving the pins inward to make it follow the contours of the leg. Everything went well except for the area just below the knee ... its hard to get rid of wrinkles there because .of the way that the leg ...

Sean M

Get well soon Mac! If you have to wait a few days to make sure that you don't forget something, I am sure your August Patron can wait.

Sean M

In earlier periods, isn't it the extended tail of a hood (alternate name: liripipe?) Twist it and tie it around the helm and it might look a lot like an orle; hang it and it could be one of those cloth drapes. The Promptorium Parvulorum , a Latin-English dictionary from 1440, has "Typett [Win: Typet...

Sean M

Apparently jousters call that kind of shield an ecranche. They definitely seem to be cavalry shields, although these two cavalieri have fallen from their horses. https://bookandsword.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/guiron_le_courtois_72r_ecranche-e1486148687935.jpg Another ecranche shows up in the Grand...

Sean M

Thanks for the frescos at Avio! I want to visit there this spring. It shows some of the shield forms which we see in those early 15th century manuscripts, suggesting that they could have been used in between. Marozzo has something called an imbracciatura which seems to be descended from those long s...

Sean M

So apropos of Dimicator https://www.patreon.com/posts/shield-classes-7155643 I have been asking myself if anyone in Italy was still using any form of three-cornered shield after 1360, except for fighting with the lance on horseback. There are all kinds of pictures of pikemen and crossbowmen with big...

Sean M

You are welcome Mac! The editors warn that the people who wrote down the recipes had not necessarily tried them all, and once they were written down they kept being copied whether or not anyone was using that technique any more, but it at least confirms that some polishers used metal laps with powde...

Sean M

145. Emery plates Make a plate of lead. Take live emery, grind it well, and sprinkle the whole plate, rubbing glass down onto it at the same time, until the emery powder is embedded into the plate. After this work whatever is necessary, using water. ... 146-D. On [polishing] glass Glass, however, s...

Sean M

There was a Robert Macefer or Machefer, fourbisseur, who was engaged in repairing and ?polishing? armour in Artois in 1345 (pages 343 and 350 of this book). I think he would approve.

Sean M

Those gambesons remind me of some 'surcoats' from the 12th to the 14th century which also have a 'tear-shaped' armscye and are closed at the hip. That can create an 'epaulette' effect and a triangular silhouette like modern men's fashions as the garment extends over the shoulder. Trying to recreate ...

Sean M

https://www.citedantan.org/site/index.php/fiches-pratiques/13-costume-militaire/68-gambison Its in French, but there are lots of pictures including a reconstruction, and you don't need to parler la lingue tres bien to understand "Une datation au carbone 14 situe la pièce entre 1160 et 1270." They i...

Sean M

It seems that lapped seams were used. http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/stitches.htm Ernst, could you tell me which line on that list you are thinking of? The "upright hem stitch" is on pieces which Textiles and Clothing interpret as parts of the soles, not the "over the foot" part...

Sean M

I used the afternoon light today to reread Sarah Thursfield's advice and fit a toille for a long split hose, the kind that needs more than one pair of points and goes up to bum level. It roughly matches Will McLean's recommended measures in Everyday Life in Medieval England which is comforting. I ha...

Sean M

Matthew "Modern Maker" Gnagy has been doing some research as he makes some 17th century felt garments. There are portraits showing breastplates worn over buff coats. But I haven't seen any surviving buff coats showing any wear from armour. The ones in Schloss Ambras are displayed with small breastpl...

Sean M

whats the bottom half of that mail piece thats being taken off? is it still mail? What bottom part? It looks to me like Artabanus is wearing his leg harness, a doublet with a patterned weave, and is in the middle of removing his shirt of mail. He has reached the point where the shirt is turned insi...

Sean M

B. Rime on the AAF found a video of removing the wrapper plate from an armet and showing that you can read a watch in the reflection of the best preserved spot. It was the video "A visit to the Armour Gallery" from the Met starting at 12:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjKbi7YUNaI&feature=youtu.b...

Sean M

On the pancerone question, I remembered a clear Italian source which I can cite. Salvatore Battaglia's gigantic dictionary of Italian quotes a 14th century Italian version of the story of Artaxerxes killing his chiliarch Artabanus. As the story goes, Artaxerxes realized that Artabanus had killed his...

Sean M

tiredweasel, that bundle in the painting of St. Ursula arriving in Cologne looks like the ones which Chris Gilman made. Thanks for the source! I may have to learn leatherworking after all. I will ask some of the shops which carry Lederhosen or purses to see if there are any leatherworkers in town wh...

Sean M

One of the wounds on Richard III's skeleton is a shallow cut to to his right mandible. I believe that this was very probably inflicted when someone cut away his helmet strap with a double-edged dagger, leaving him helmetless. ... The nearly contemporary romance Tirant lo Blanc also notes this vulne...

Sean M

Thanks for taking so much time to document your work and talk about your choices, Mac. How was the lower back of the neck protected in this style when the salet was tipped down? As a fourteenth-century guy, I expect to see at least one layer of steel there (even if our idea of protecting the spine w...

Sean M

I never thought that those rings on the Avant armour could be a "whip stitch" of wire instead of closed rings! That would make it easier to remove the mail sabatons from the greaves for cleaning. Sean, I'm following Mann's translation in this, but you've spent quite a bit of time in Italian document...

Sean M

I am pretty sure that in Italian as in French, a pancerone/panzerone/panchire is a shirt of mail not a skirt of mail. English seems to be the outlier. Dictionaries can be misleading, because Italian dictionaries tend to be written by 'literature people' who focus on belles lettres not merchants' rec...

Sean M

Its interesting to see how a feature from my period developed into the 15th century (those fringes at the knee were very practical back before the knee was articulated on lames with a demi-greave to stop a gap appearing between knee and greave, and they appear at Pistoia, but I don't think they appe...

Sean M

The other thing is that German has never lost the word Hosen like English has. In English it was replaced by the Romance words "pants" and "trousers" but in German the normal word for what men wear on their legs is still Hosen . So to a speaker of German "hosen" is not an exotic technical word like ...

Sean M

As far as I know, panzerhose were worn as armour instead of under armour . Under greaves and cuisses they just wore ordinary hosen. I think that we often get exaggerated ideas of the difference between everyday clothing, and the clothing worn under armour. It may be that "an arming doublet" is any d...

Sean M

Boris Bedrosov wears a similar jacket as part of his Yushman Project : http://media.snimka.bg/s1/5677/037597418.jpg?r=0 Not sure if he stuffed his jacket with mail, but he would probably be good to talk to about tailoring. I sort of remember a thread with practical posts by Russ Mitchell, but I can'...

Sean M

Foot combat armour in 15th century Italy would be a great project for someone with an academic bent. We know that from at least the 1320s until the 17th century, armour was configured differently for different kinds of fighting, and we know that effigies just represent one possible configuration, bu...

Sean M

Its also a problem with spending months not days on a project :( Piotr made my kit in three months, and maybe that is on the right order for 'bespoke armourers' like the Armourers' Company of London, but most armour was churned out by shops specializing in one body part taking orders in the dozen pa...

Sean M

Anyways, Gustovic, its good that someone from your facebook group brought this image up. I guarantee that anyone who spends an afternoon in even a public library will find all kinds of interesting things which 'armour people' have never seen. There is a lot of late medieval art, and the people who s...

Sean M

Do we suppose that he is wearing an habergeon with a black and white border? Mac His urison has the same trim, so I would interpret the mauve-coloured thing as some kind of short-sleeved coat with a border of woven trim. It could be lined with mail, or sit between the coat of mail and the breast wi...

Sean M

For what its worth, Piotr put two wings on both of my poleyns. (The cuisses are open with a wrapper, but he only had one chance to fit me). I hope to spread the good word one volta stabile at a time. I'm not so sure that what we are seeing are in fact closed cuisses. I cropped a couple of interestin...

Sean M

My point was that even other countries had closed cuisses, while in Capwell's book it seems like he thinks it's an almost unique feature in English armour, since they fought a lot on foot. IIRC, Toby is only comparing to 15th century North Italian and South German armour, not earlier styles. Nobody...

Sean M

Thanks A.P. Those Flemish illuminations do have a lot of dark armour. I hope that someone sits down and does the archival research there, because I am sure that the Flemish towns have just as much as the German ones (let alone the Italian ones which nobody outside of Italy seems to have tackled!) Ye...

Re: ACL arming coat questions

Re: ACL arming coat questions

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: 16th C Tippet = Helm Decoration?

Re: Heater Shields in Italy 1360-1410

Re: Heater Shields in Italy 1360-1410

Heater Shields in Italy 1360-1410

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: French page on the sleeve of a gambeson at Bussy St. Mar

French page on the sleeve of a gambeson at Bussy St. Martin

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: "Buff" coats made of wool felt?

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: Armour Bags

Re: Chinstraps for sallets?

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: Etymology of english word "Pants"

Re: The down side to getting into shape

Re: Jazerant

Re: My armour project - Italian 15th C

Re: The down side to getting into shape

Re: Interesting Catalan Image With Back of Cuirass

Re: Interesting Catalan Image With Back of Cuirass

Re: Lets discuss: Segmented cuisses Italy 1370-85

Re: Lets discuss: Segmented cuisses Italy 1370-85

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs