The Armour Archive

Sean M

Thank you Mac for the link. Must note that the cost of linen seems to be an arm, leg plus an ankle. Wow. You can buy excellent linen for $10-20/yard, which is not more than good cotton. But if you want a good approximation to cheap-to-middling medieval cloth, you need to pay more ... modern fabrics...

Sean M

Thanks Jeremy! Hey, I recognize that blue spiral-bound book. I had good luck with that one. Have you spoken with Tasha at all? She was very helpful when I had questions assembling my project... Lookin' good... -Jeremy No comment. What I see when I look at the sources seems to be a bit different than...

Sean M

I am now sewing my aketon suitable for northern Italy in the 1360s. My main sources are the yellow pourpont of Charles de Blois , the red coat armour of Charles VI , the “naked knight” scene in BNF Français M. 383 , and the Great Wardrobe accounts of Edward III from the 1340s . The purpose of this p...

Sean M

Based on information gleaned over the years, but basically my own interpretation of a "portable medieval forge." It's served me well for ~20 years, but the leather has failed on the bellows at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival this spring. http://www.larp.com/midgard/02h24.jpg http://www.larp.c...

Sean M

Cool, but do you have any evidence of a surviving piece that is made of two welded layers? Like x-ray, extensive sampling of both inside and outside, etc... Because I'm told delamination doesn't necessarily mean forge welding of different layers. David Sim has an X-ray, VPH, carbon content, and mic...

Sean M

Una fonte italiana è una lettera di S. Bernardino da Siena, che è stata trattata anche su questo forum anni fa: Tra le migliori testimonianze circa l'arte di fabbricare le armature va ricordata quella del senese Bernardino Albizeschi, discendente di un'importante famiglia di fabbri toscani, più not...

Sean M

Kōzan says that the outer third of an armour plate should be steel, and the inner two thirds should be iron, forge-welded together, because all-steel plate shatters and all-iron plate is easily dented.

Sean M

Don't forget Piotr Feret of platener.eu and Jeff Wasson in New York.

Some armourers know how to make armour with historical curves, but don't get many chances because their customers prefer a different look.

Sean M

A possible advantage to making a "naked" coat of plates is that you really don't need a full lining to hold it all together. It could just as well be hung on a complex of internal straps like a lorica segmentata . By removing the necessity for an internal "garment", one removes one of the more diff...

Sean M

Daniel: the forgiveness flowing? ^^ I see what I can do. This topic haunts me for some years now. I'll be damned if I won't squeeze something useful out of this thread! Wenn ich für den Teufel sprechen darf, ist Harnisch in der aus der deutschsprachigen Ländern stämmenden Urkunden vor 1450 fast une...

Sean M

Except maybe it's not fastened on fabric but the plates are connected to one another via sliding rivets. :lol: The cuirasses, pairs of plates, and brigandines without covers in documents could also be built like a fauld of lames, with leather straps connecting the plates. So documents don't answer ...

Sean M

We all know that some weird armour related things happened in the 14th century. One of the things I find rather interesting is a version of a CoP with the plates above the canvas. Pairs of plates, cuirasses, and brigandines with some of the plates uncovered or some parts "made in the manner of a cu...

Sean M

Thanks Kostantin for the answer. Im from Spain. Here we have very few SCA groups (Actually i only know one), we do more LARP, historical fencing or Battle of the Nations style. You are right, find armor in Europe from dark ages is a challenge. In many online shops still have the "historical accurat...

Sean M

Plates for Pairs of plates thickness varies. I have seen chest plates that are toward 2mm. Some less than .o8mm. From the brigs I have seen you are seeing 3 layers of fabric. Some incorporated a thin leather layer as well per the Howard House Books. RPM And it is awfully common in world history for...

Sean M

Portable Medieval Oven search on Pinterest https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/cc/e2/7a/cce27ad632637d6c96e6516ace92671b.jpg I have seen a slightly bigger, heavier version of those at Christkindlmärkte in Südtirol/Alto Adige/South Tirol (they seemed designed to be rolled into place behind a p...

Sean M

In SCA, carpet arms YOU! http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/Matsuto77/12229-2.jpg Need a 70's photo of a fighter in carpet-armor. If a naughty bard wants to update the arming scene in Sir Gawain to the modern middle ages, by all means! ("First he dumped his duffel on a tarp of Home Depot / and ...

Sean M

Modus Armandi Milites (circa 1320s): “First the fire is made and the carpet spread ...” Gawain and the Green Knight ; Fytte the Second folio 102v/98v, original here trans W.A. Neilson: “First a carpet of Tolouse ( a tulé tapit ) was stretched over the floor, and much was the gilt gear that gleamed ...

Sean M

It's also worth noting that the Maciejowski Goliath's ocreas aereas (as the Vulgate renders the passage) are not mentioned in the Latin text on the folio (nor in the Persian or Judeo-Persian added texts), nor are they rendered in gold leaf, which appears on Goliath's kettle hat, guige, and sword. I...

Sean M

If you could give any sources for plate greaves in the middle of the 13th century other than the Maciejowski Bible and the Trinity Apocalypse, please do! Claude Blair's observation that a handful of works of art from the middle of the century depict them but they only start showing up in documents a...

Sean M

The blades of their swordes I would haue to be verie good, and of the length of a yard and not aboue; with their hilts only made with. 2. portes, a greater and a smaller on the out side of the hiltes, after the fashion of the Italian and Spanishe arming swordes; and those swordes I would haue them ...

Sean M

I'm better with "tinned" and "to make" or "do", but am at a loss to explain a relationship between pel (FR peau , Catalan pèl = pelt, skin with hair) to the silver or gold and rivet? EDIT: It seems the word for a fruit peel is very similar. Perhaps the rivet cap is described as a "peel" or skin? Fo...

Sean M

On the Road in the Hundred Years War -- stories of 14th century warfare from the chivalric historian Jean Froissart. Would you like to hear what the knights of the Hundred Years War had to say about their personal experiences of the conflict? Jean Froissart, the era's greatest fan of chivalry, devo...

Sean M

I spent some time working on the similar clause in the 1296 rule for a project that I can't talk about yet, and I think that pel is Modern French peau "skin, pelt, leather" and estamé or estaimé is Modern French étamé "tinned" (Latin stagnum [Sn] + an /e/ at the beginning and some of the consonants ...

Sean M

Now those German and Austrian images are new to me! I like them. There is definitely nothing wrong with using biblical or classical scenes as a source, but they do raise some questions which are hard to answer without turning to other types of evidence like documents or surviving armour. I'm definit...

Sean M

Interesting discourse gentlemen! It's heartening to hear that HEMA is as diverse as you describe. Human nature tends to make people adopt "uniforms" that help identify a person as a group so there is no surprise that within HEMA there are differences in what folks choose to wear as protection. Hist...

Sean M

I am conflicted about Goliath's schynbalds in the Maciejowski Bible. They also appear in the contemporary Trinity Apocalypse, where there is no Biblical mandate for them, so I would presume that they are in use. http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4970/15401/ If it's solely to follow the Biblical accou...

Sean M

Its always a good idea to look up the story which the artist was trying to depict, because sometimes that required them to include certain things. For example, Goliath in the Maciejowski Bible wears greaves because the Bible says he wears greaves. Whether the artist is showing the latest in military...

Sean M

Judging from Tasha's examination of the pourpoint of Charles VI ( http://cottesimple.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Charles-VI-pourpoint-article-Tasha-D-Kelly-reduced-size.pdf ), which seems to match the difficult phrasing of the earlier 1296 Ordonnances of Paris ( http://forums.armourarchive.or...

Sean M

Helms are quite rare in the late 14th century Italian documents I have read. I wonder if some of the headpieces that we usually call "helms" (such as bascinets with a shovel-blade, side-mounted visor with a slit between it and the bowl) could have been basins/little basins to 14th century people. Ma...

Sean M

Someone who was willing to acquire raw cotton and learn to work with it might try to see how the assembly of the Charles VI garment works with only one layer of stuffing rather than two. It ought to let you avoid the quilting distorting the pattern, and each layer does not have to be as thick and de...

Sean M

The stuffed garments in the Great Wardrobe Accounts of Edward III have between 1 and 3 pounds of cotton in them and usually three or more layers of cloth. I suspect that the lower amounts of cotton are for garments which used 'pads' of stuffing in specific areas which needed to look curvy or distrib...

Sean M

Anyone who cares to read my opinions on the state of research in historical swordsmanship and why I have given up on improving it can find them on my blog. I wish the people who have not yet given up all the best, and have one last scholarly article waiting for the publisher to be able to afford to ...

Sean M

After the dance: “Hey baby, life is short, you know? Death could come at any time. So while we live why don't we really live?”

His cote has wrinkles on the back too.

Sean M

Of course, if you link directly to an image on someone else's sever, some people complain that you are stealing their bandwidth. And given how often sites vanish or restructure themselves and break links, I have given up on linking to images on other people's servers from my blog, except as suggeste...

Sean M

My plan is to have it be the foundation garment, so it will be under everything. Not looking for the big-breasted style as it's going to be right before that period (1340-1360). I would like it close-fitting, not as loose as the black and white illustration (mostly looking at that one for how to do...

Re: Replacing armour: A Churburg 13 based project

Re: A linen armouring project

A linen armouring project

Re: Medieval Portable Forge

Re: Was Japanese armour ever case hardened?

Re: Was Japanese armour ever case hardened?

Re: Was Japanese armour ever case hardened?

Re: Looking for female armor

Re: CoP with "exposed" plates

Re: CoP with "exposed" plates

Re: CoP with "exposed" plates

Re: CoP with "exposed" plates

Re: Helmets in Europe

Re: Brigandine shoulder reinforcement?

Re: Medieval Portable Forge

Re: PSA: Do you have your arming carpet?

PSA: Do you have your arming carpet?

Re: Manuscript miniature stereotypes.

Re: Manuscript miniature stereotypes.

Re: Carrying an Elizabethan parrying dagger

Re: 1311 Gauntlets of Plate

New Muhlberger Book on Froissart Out

Re: 1311 Gauntlets of Plate

Re: Manuscript miniature stereotypes.

Re: Has anyone tried making HEMA style hand protection?

Re: Manuscript miniature stereotypes.

Re: Manuscript miniature stereotypes.

Re: Questions about gambeson stitching

Re: The Frogmouth helm: not only for jousting.

Re: Mid 14th century aketon

Re: Mid 14th century aketon

Re: Has anyone tried making HEMA style hand protection?

Re: Mid 14th century aketon

Re: WADE! Their using pics of your gauntlets!!!

Re: Mid 14th century aketon