The Armour Archive

Sean M

The "sparring glove" is the accepted gold standard for hema longsword participants. At least among the end of the community which defines itself against re-enactors and the SCA and other nerds. Some of their reasons are practical, and some are just taste. The groups and events which ban metal armou...

Sean M

Are you aiming for the tight-fitted, big-breasted style in the colourful manuscript, or the looser look in the black-and-white manuscript? The former is hard to get right without a lot of experimentation with cheap cloth, but its great for supporting your legharness and very fashionable starting aro...

Sean M

Thanks Randall. I have been posting here to distract myself from some bad news back in Canada.

Sean M

Aketons and Doublets in 1343/4 http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=181664 Late Fourteenth Century Arming Garments http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=158477 One thing I notice is that its hard to find a stuffed and quilted garment for a soldier containi...

Sean M

Thanks Sean. Understood. Yeah that is the article I got the 18 feet from (Zeitschrift für Historische Waffenkunde is the predecessor to Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen & Kostümkunde, my bad). But author Hans Müller-Hickler does not cite any source when he says they were 18 feet in Turin in 1327....

Sean M

Bertus, I could try one day, but I am busy with personal issues, work, and my tailoring project right now. An Austrian reenactment site gives the full citation as Hans Müller-Hickler, "Studien über den langen Spieß," Zeitschrift für historische Waffenkunde 4 (1906/08) pages 295 and following. Have f...

Sean M

Could coroyes = curroies “belts, straps”? A French or Belgian scholar in 1951 did not think of that, but such good dictionaries were not available then http://www.atilf.fr/dmf/definition/coroie

I think that aidier a VERB may be "help to VERB" but my French is rusty.

Sean M

Polybius famously takes for granted that the balance point of a pike is 2/7 of the way forward from the butt ( Polyb. 18.29ff ) rather than in the middle. Peter Connolly made a pretty good case that Polybius is speaking in drillmaster's cubits defined by arm's length and elbow's length and rules of ...

Sean M

So what's your tailoring project? An arming coat in the style of the pourpoint of Charles de Blois with a cut closer to the original ( inside photo ) than most of the modern interpretations I see. It seems like I should be able to get it to do at least as much to change my silhouette as a good suit...

Sean M

There are definitely earlier cases of a town sending someone to buy kit for 40 crossbowmen from one dealer ... but there is also that thing in Medieval Craftsmen: Armourers where it looks like the merchant just gathered up all the arms and armour he could buy and delivered it. Sir John Smythe compla...

Sean M

I agree that there are two contradictory tendencies of wanting to copy what someone else has already figured out how to make (so order up another Valerie du Sinon bascinet with visor), and wanting to look different. Part of that is a lack of education, so that people interested in putting together a...

Sean M

Also, that post is fancily written in a postmodernist kind of way, but it does not explain why he feels that Viking Age Scandinavia was not a world “in which individuality within accepted parameters is the hallmark of status" and why he thinks that Viking warriors looked so similar that "it becomes ...

Sean M

Herodotus seems to have been able to name half a dozen styles of bow, and I think I recognize two or three styles in Greek art (the one which Artemis carries is not a Scythian/Cimmerian bow, but I forget the other one or two possibilities- maybe the Cretan bow and something else?) I am sure that Gia...

Sean M

How much does it weigh empty? This interpretation feels like a heavy but protective style of quiver: I don't think any water is likely to get in, or the feathers are likely to be mangled by anything but the other arrows. I like the construction of the pointed cap with gores. I would expect that on t...

Sean M

Thanks! I think that the historical clothing people, and the modern-Elizabethan people, have some knowledge which has not spread across to armourers and people working on earlier centuries. But its a complicated area, and sources are the best way to sort out what has solid backing and what is a plau...

Sean M

Could Cypriote French Roncin = London English Rouncey?

Sean M

Because I am not an expert on 16th century textile terminology, I have added Dansknecht's interpretation of "cotton (cloth)" to the original post. I would still appreciate a source if anyone can suggest one!

Sean M

Doing a “compare and contrast” would be even better, but just trying and writing down how this compares to other polishing methods would be interesting! Because I travel so much and spend so much time buried in books, I am better at finding different ideas than trying them out. I wonder how often th...

Sean M

Get well soon! Being sick so often this winter has taken a lot out of me, even though I am theoretically young and healthy. St. Florian can wait, and as the patron of firefighters I imagine that he knows something about ruptured ligaments.

Sean M

Where Holmes Fustian and Linsey-Woolsey exactly each start and stop, I am not sure. According to M. page 84 , one Italian term for cloth with a woolen weft and linen warp was santellaro basso . In Verona, Padua, Venice, and (after 1231) Bologna it was made with 1320 warp threads, 17 pounds of wool ...

Sean M

It's interesting that he should want the doublet's surface to have texture, rather than to be smooth. I wish he would have elaborated on why that is. I wonder how he would feel about cotton velveteen. It's nappy, strong, and looks nice. Mac Yes, especially since he is worried about equipment gettin...

Sean M

Cotton moleskin or brushed cotton is probably closer than cotton flannel. Otherwise, of the variety of fustians available...some were velvet-like, others canvas like. FWIW the cotton he's referring to is a woolen cloth. One thing which strikes me is that Sir John takes it for granted that a soldier...

Sean M

That's very interesting information thanks for sharing that! I will have to dig a bit deeper as I am interested in the topic of period materials and textiles. With regards to cotton I had always thought that due to the inadequacies of cotton production that cotton was always very expensive in compa...

Sean M

I also interpret "cha∣moise skinnes" as chamois leather? I think that the vertical bar | marks words which are split across a line break in the original, so “cha|moise” is chamois (whose Latin name just means "mountain goat"). Different types of fustian were coming out of different places and some ...

Sean M

William Hodgeson, Memoranda: intended to aid the English student in the acquirement of the niceties of French grammar , 1817 https://books.google.com/books?id=W1piAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=napped+fustian&source=bl&ots=WlZY_gpRBH&sig=UN3beJI3RUrzS3CSYJZaJ3rnP0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGjYza6IHMA...

Sean M

Sean, I do not think any here are saying long pikes were not in use. It is questions on their assertion that they were 16-18 feet long. As I said not a one of the pikes in the painting is 16-18 feet long. They seem to rest this argument on those two secondary sources based on primary ones. So far a...

Sean M

From what Maureen F. Mazzaoui says, it sounds like modern cotton flannels and flanelettes are similar to the napped or piled fustians of the 15th and 16th centuries (there were other kinds of fustians too, but they do not seem to have been as popular in Smythe's England). "Brushed cotton" seems to b...

Sean M

Their proving of the use of pikes is based on terms which he argues means the pike was clearly in use....... as a person who spends his entire career in medieval documents I'd be wary of such assumptions. Medieval terminology is not always as specific at times as we'd like to think (though I am not...

Sean M

Sir John Smythe had a lot of strong opinions, and published some of them (probably enough to end his military career for good). Pages 183-185 of his Instructions contain a description of the kind of doublet which he thought was best to wear under armour and why. Among other things, it contains detai...

Sean M

Moffat's commentary on the Modus armandi milites http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/174161210X12652009773375#abstract DOI 10.1179/174161210X12652009773375 (you need to log in using the link above, then search for the article) Hood on the “kettle hat with a handle” from London http://www.tand...

Sean M

For those of us who can't afford a paper subscription to Arms & Armour , here is the one on armour in Henry V's Great Wardrobe accounts which Thom Richardson published for the anniversary of Agincourt. I noticed the high-status jack made of 52 ells of fabric in the Polish article. The cover of the d...

Sean M

In Italy, the “piece” was either the length of cloth which came off the loom, or a simple fraction of that (the spinners produced warp threads in standard lengths and qualities, so it was easier to weave cloth to that length then cut it in half if your buyers preferred shorter bolts). In northern It...

Sean M

Laser cutting/engraving sounds like it might be a great solution for archivists who visit the right kind of metal shop regularly ... not sure about prices though. If you can get hold of planks of lime wood (linden) then its easy enough to make them yourself with a sharp knife and chisels. Or use lin...

Sean M

I also recall hearing a talk by an archaeologist who said that after L'Anse-Aux Meadows was found, the attitude in the archaeological community changed from "don't be silly, those sagas are just legends" to "ok, we have one good site, we can stop looking." They had been burned too many times by peop...

Sean M

In Drei Schnittbücher p. 132 paltrock (< German Rock "gown" ... unless that is a folk-etymology of a word with a different French root?) is defined as "a pleated gown, with a high neck which has loops or pickadils set into the collar." No sources or examples of usage are given. The Dutch/German roc...

Re: Has anyone tried making HEMA style hand protection?

Re: Mid 14th century aketon

Re: I wanna be a 14TH CENTURY SCOT

Re: mid 14th century cloth garment nomenclature

Re: I wanna be a 14TH CENTURY SCOT

Re: I wanna be a 14TH CENTURY SCOT

Re: Document: 1304 Expenses of Countess of Artois

Re: Pikes & drum in the 14th century

Re: Modern Individualism vs. Accurate Portrayals

Re: Modern Individualism vs. Accurate Portrayals

Re: Modern Individualism vs. Accurate Portrayals

Re: Modern Individualism vs. Accurate Portrayals

Re: Classical Greek Quiver

Re: Classical Greek Quiver

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Document: 1367 Bishop of Limassol

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Was maille cleaned using sand and vinegar?

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: I wanna be a 14TH CENTURY SCOT

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: I wanna be a 14TH CENTURY SCOT

Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Free access to Routledge journals until April 17th

Re: Free access to Routledge journals until April 17th

Re: Doublets and aketons in 1343/4

Re: Possible source for stamps for printing textiles

Re: Point Rosie

Re: Paltocks