The Armour Archive

Sean M

That shield from the psalter is exactly what I was thinking. My initial impression was that multiple plank wedges were steamed into shape, then assembled. I picture two wooden layers, perhaps faced with leather or gessoed linen. I was hoping that some dig had found the metal fittings remaining from...

Sean M

What methods have you used to sew them on? Sounds like there are some specialty stitched some of you use. I'd love any ideas. RPM For two-hole scales I think I used a stab stitch, or maybe a double stab stitch with two needles passing in opposite directions through each hole (edit: that seems to be...

Sean M

What was the lacing of them Sean? That's complicated and I can't afford to write it up for free. I can document some kind of hide product, linen thread/cord, and copperalloy strips being used to lace ancient armour. You might check what they used to lace jacks of plate in the sixteenth century (or ...

Sean M

Where would the medieval craftsman use sinew? --We have see over on the pavise thread http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=181105 that whole tendon might be used for shield handles. --Sinew that has been shredded into fibers was used to as a backing for bows and crossbows. Ar...

Sean M

Oh, I also found an interesting source for nice soft hemp rope, if you want something a tad more authentic than the standard cotton cable cord--hemp bondage rope! Also known as "shibari" rope. Again, comes in various thicknesses and colors, and the good stuff isn't exactly cheap, but I've been usin...

Sean M

For my last scale armour I used 12-ply waxed linen thread , about 1 mm diameter. I did not wear it long enough to see if there was a problem with the laces breaking. The Carpow armour used two-ply linen to lace each scale to the backing, but they ran a cord between the lacing holes to pad the laces.

Sean M

Are you familiar with the helmets by Windrose Armoury and That Guy's Products? They are standard issue in the part of the North American Fiore community which visits Racine, and the former were designed so that SCA rapier and cut-and-thrust fencers could also use them and to be as cheap as possible ...

Sean M

Louis was born 13 March 1372, and the order is placed on 6 May 1387, shortly after his 15th birthday. Perhaps his age had some impact on the amount of fabric needed? He could have been a "late bloomer". That could be the answer. Judging by the appendix in Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince , an...

Sean M

Ok, the photos are all lost, but Kenwreck Wulfe posted a YouTube video here. I think that my old scale back in Canada was about that flexible but I don't have photos of it moving.

Sean M

Katherine Barich and Marion McNealy, Drei Schnittbücher: Three Austrian Master Tailor Books of the 16th Century (Nadel und Faden: n.p., 2015) nadelundfadenpress.com This has lots of sketches of how to lay out different Austrian and Hungarian garments on 16th century fabric taken from three sets of r...

Sean M

Which armour forum? We are on one, the Arms and Armour Forum is another, ...

Edit; Someone on the thread St George - Hradcany Square - Body armour - Update! was talking about a reconstruction but I don't see any sign that they finished the sleeves.

Sean M

Yeah, I'd like to see a cheap and affordable thin two-hole non-roman sort so I can make scale sleeves a la St. George of Prague, now that it's been demonstrated that they'll work. But it always comes down to cost... Demonstrated by who? I am always interested in interpretations of scale and lamella...

Sean M

If so it is the first reference to making a crappy first try in something cheap and light which I have seen ;) I don't think you could get more than two layers of doublet out of three ells of linen, even if petit means "sleeveless." I wonder if the armourer took it apart at the other end, or stuffed...

Sean M

They also show up in the passage of Jacques de Hemricourt where he complains that the kids these days don't dress properly: Mais, à present, cascons est armeis d'unne cotte de fier appelée panchire, sor petis chevaz ; et ont vestut on joupon de festaine alle deseur , sy que nus n'est conus encontre ...

Sean M

Another option would be layered cloth construction: sew a few dozen layers of old cotton or linen cloth together, then add a cover of the nicest cloth you can afford and a lining with any pockets for reinforcements. That can look fit for a Sultan of Mysore , and has smooth inner surfaces ready to at...

Sean M

I let my ISPs contract expire awhile back. I will likely bring it back in a little while when I have time to shop around Ok. Wordpress charges $99-129/year for doing everything (hosting, providing and maintaining a content management system, registering the domain through a third party so your addr...

Sean M

I've decided to armor up my alternate persona, and want to go with a standalone gambeson, as advocated by Konstanin in many discussions. To those of you who have constructed gambys along these lines, and I'm curious how you went about implementing the pockets for your protective plates? Did you jus...

Sean M

I have added the information from the Norwich militia rolls to the first post in this thread. Various, Norwich Rolls of Arms (English, circa 1340s-1360s): These list men who appeared at musters and the equipment that they presented. Some rolls just describe the equipment of an "armed man" or "fully-...

Sean M

Thank you very much HanPiaoJi. Before all that I know about Han Dynasty armour is the articles by Albert E. Dien at Stanford University.

Sean M

James "de Biblesworth" and Kimberly Barker's site http://www.historiclife.com/ has been down since December 2015. If anyone has their contact information, it might be good to ask them about it. I appreciate their taking the time to describe how and why they made things. The Internet Archive has a ve...

Sean M

In the Thisted Musuem, Denmark? Do you have an inside photo or any other information, Bertus? This gauntlet also has a swivelling plate riding over the first knuckle, where the fingers join the hand, surviving and in place.

Sean M

Annemarieke Willemsen, "Honderden. Van hand tot hand – handschoenen en wanten in de Nederlanden voor 1700." Spa uitgevers B.V. 2015 - EUR 19.50 http://www.medievalhistories.com/gloves-and-mittens-from-the-past/ http://www.spa-uitgevers.nl/Webwinkel-Product-130118067/Van-hand-tot-hand.-Handschoenen-e...

Sean M

I don't see a way to report "there is only one of those, and it does not belong to the seller" either. The present custodian of that armour, in South Africa, is even a member of the Archive!

I am scared to click the suggested link to "GOTHIC COMBAT FULL BODY ARMOUR / GBP 600"

Sean M

In 2014 photos were fine without flash (but flash is a bad idea for photographing polished steel in a dim environment anyways). If you want to see something in a back room, writing ahead would be wise. Don't forget the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum if you like armour of +XVI and +XVII.

Sean M

I missed this the first time around. The scan is pretty poor and the photos, while looking a bit better that the text, lack any scale. Most of the photos have a scale consisting of a white box and a black box each 1 cm long. It can be a bit hard to see until you print them out. And he does provide ...

Sean M

On the other hand, its free, and it gives you threads to pull which will bring you a paper copy (their online store is closed for maintenance at the moment), and the original publications of all the pairs of plates excavated in Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Estonia (!) The original publication o...

Sean M

Specifically, there are sketches of about half an hourglass gauntlet including one intact scale finger (!) and what he thinks is the top lame of a pointed fauld/DPU/'nad tasset. It would probably take an armourer to suggest where the miscellaneous lames go.

Sean M

Wow, thanks Ernst! Those are the three kinds of fighting which the Modus Armandi Milites recognizes! (Tournament, joust, war).

Have a 2016 full of 13th and 14th century material culture.

Sean M

The oblong or almond-shaped knobs on these knuckleplates remind me of decorations on English effigies which I do not recall seeing on sources from other countries in that period. After looking through Grönwald's collecton of gauntlets depicted in sculpture, the ridges on Wade's A-236 reminds me of t...

Sean M

As I look through his list and Goll's photos I realize just how few complete fingers and thumbs from 14th century gauntlets survive. I suppose that we have the Wisby gauntlets as examples of fingers of narrow lames, and the Rippon and Canterbury and Allen fingers as examples of construction with a f...

Sean M

to put things in the same place: http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-A-236-Together.jpg And details of these pieces: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-236.html Its interesting that both your A-236 and the Black Prince's gauntlets have embossed bands 'around the finger.' I wonder if that did not h...

Sean M

Here is the list of entries from Goll's Thesis that include finger plates, some are dubious at best. I plan to come back and add links and maybe photos as I have time. Do't forget that Holger Grönwald has a list of all surviving hourglass gauntlets in "Old Iron- Iron Fists and Other Finds from the ...

Sean M

You might want to add more holes in the top. If one of two fails, you have a loose scale, and a hole. I don't know. Two holes is not uncommon, and with a sensible overlap pattern (eg. each scale overlaps its neighbour by a third and the row below it by half) the loss of one scale should not open en...

Sean M

I can have a look next time I am in the Schloss, but could you define "scale thumb" for me? Do you mean a thumb of many narrow lames plus a large shaped plate over the tip (eff. of Niccolò Acciaiuoli, Bernabo Visconti), or does any thumb where each plate is overlapped on one side and underlapped on ...

Sean M

Merry Christmas to you too Halberds. Making tools is important ... and you never know, you guys may get me pounding metal one of these days.

Re: Byzantine shields

Re: Sinew

Re: Sinew

Re: Sinew

Re: Sinew

Re: Sinew

Re: Ideas for 14th and 15th century fencing helmets?

Re: Reinforced Pourpoint

Re: Scale/lamellar you would like to see

New book on sixteenth-century clothing (Drei Schnittbücher)

Re: Scale/lamellar you would like to see

Re: Scale/lamellar you would like to see

Re: Reinforced Pourpoint

Re: Jupons

Re: Standalone gambeson, ala Mac Bible and Konstanin?

Re: http://www.historiclife.com/ is down

Re: Standalone gambeson, ala Mac Bible and Konstanin?

Re: Late Fourteenth Century Arming Garments II: The Upper Bo

Re: West Han late stage military attache illustration

http://www.historiclife.com/ is down

Re: 14th Century Gauntlet Knuckle plate find

New Book On Gloves and Mittens in the Netherlands to 1700

Re: They're at it again

Re: KHM photo policies?

Re: Marek: Medieval Armour from Szczerba Castle

Re: Marek: Medieval Armour from Szczerba Castle

Re: Marek: Medieval Armour from Szczerba Castle

Re: Document: 1333 Count of Auxerre

Re: 14th Century Gauntlet Knuckle plate find

Re: 14th Century Gauntlet Knuckle plate find

Re: 14th Century Gauntlet Knuckle plate find

Re: 14th Century Gauntlet Knuckle plate find

Re: Scale Cuisses

Re: Schloss Ambras Detail: Asymmetric Thumb Construction

Re: Finally, a tool for me, a tool to make tools.