The Armour Archive

Sean M

The line between "armour" and "clothing" is a semantic question not an empirical question (personally I see armour as a kind of clothing) which is why I assembled and translated those descriptions of aketons, pourpoints, and quilted doublets worn under armour. Then we can see how much protection a 1...

Sean M

I’m aiming for 1560’s, so the piece of yours I linked fits well. I’m also aware that those are gassers designed to hang from a fauld, not point to a padded garment as I intend; that slight modification lets me use the things now while I don’t have a cuirass, and then have an easy modification once ...

Sean M

Scales were not an unheard of type of armour in 14th and 15th century Europe: they were used for gauntlet fingers (surviving pieces, documents), cheap or concealable caps (documents, chronicles), aventails (documents), and possibly even faulds, sleeves, and sabatons if we can trust the art. Other th...

Sean M

This project has been stalled because I am having trouble making buttons out of the heavy linen. I have tried the instructions by Sarah Thursfield, Cynthia Long https://medievaltailor.com/demonstrations/buttons/ and Leimomi Oakes http://thedreamstress.com/2015/06/making-medieval-cloth-buttons/ The p...

Sean M

I notice that the link no longer works, and I just see a list of 12 books in their online shop https://wallacecollectionshop.org/collections/books Has this gone to join Boccia and the other armour books which are only available used? What are the ISBN and proper title?

Sean M

I finally remembered where I had seen supposedly Roman locking tongs! It was another book, but it claimed to be basing its drawings on H. Ohlhaver, Der Germanische Schmied und sein Wergzeug, Leipzig 1939.

Sean M

Other sources? Thoughts? Somehow you need to clamp your piece to be able to file decorations for example. Also when you want to file a screw thread onto something. How do you do that without a precise clamping device? Same goes for filing some decorations on buckles for example.... Cheers! Peter Th...

Sean M

I don't know anything about 13th century mail, sorry. My medieval research focuses on linen armour and the 14th century. Was the Waterford bow 80lbs draw? I'm also concerned that the bow is too light to be considered a war bow. Back when I was shooting, I used to pull 70lbs back to my ear... and I'm...

Sean M

Thanks Dwarlock! I think that comments about what has worked and what has not are important, because most of us only have a few armoured fighters to talk shop with (and we often buy what our friends know and trust rather than risk trying something new). You can read a source from the 1360s describin...

Sean M

Well, it might well be that some of your tests mean that you don't need to try others. If the arrows bounce off the plates, you probably don't need to test whether they still bounce off the plates plus surcoat ... But yes, there are a lot of variables! And of course, we do not have many surviving ex...

Sean M

You could also start out by testing a 'low end' guess (probably just an unlined wool tunic and a linen shirt plus the mail) and a 'high-end' guess (probably 2 or 3 layers of linen stuffed with cotton and a linen shirt plus the mail). If the arrows pierce one but not the other you could try out possi...

Sean M

1195 Itinerary of Richard I : Thanks to Ernst (AA). Infantry armed with hauberks and pourpoints, or infantry armed with either hauberks or pourpoints? Unclear. also unclear is, if they were worn together, which was worn on top. The Latin is pretty clear. Here is the whole passage which might clear ...

Sean M

The mid-13th century effigy of Jean d'Alluye reveals the sleeves of the garment worn under his hauberk because the mittens are pulled back. The otherwise detailed carving suggests that there are no quilt lines in the fabric of the sleeves (i.e. it's a tunic): Jean d'Alluye That image and the Itiner...

Sean M

I also came across this rather cool Lithuanian reenactment group, Vitkatlikai, that does tenth-fourteenth century stuff. Just browse the website a bit to get a feel for the navigation, or take some time translating! Most of it's just historical notes and pertains to a lot of 13th century stuff, but...

Sean M

ergosum wrote:Francesco Datini?

Buy a copy of Medieval Warfare VIII-1 (John Hawkwood and the Condottieri) and find out! It should be available for pre-orders in a week or two.

Sean M

RandallMoffett wrote:Spring in Utah.

I have an even first week of May

RPM

When in Aprille the exam-es ende
The Mayday sun is re-enactor's friende
And batheth pavillions in gentle hete
The which is gentle camper's fav'rite trete
The little kinder and the patient wife
Gladly go-en and maken little strife

Sean M

Thanks for your thoughts. Very shortly, you will be able to see how I render it, and where I got these passages. Gustovic, in this archive coretti are listed with the maglia , and only mail gets described by weight. When they have a light or a heavy bacinetto or corazza , they just say leggiero or w...

Sean M

There are good closeups of the top half of the effigy in Giuseppe Pavanelle, La Basilica dei Santi Giovani e Paolo: Pantheon della Serenissima https://www.academia.edu/9866007/Monumento_funebre_di_Jacopo_Cavalli Unfortunately, no photos of the gauntlets or legs :( But we can see his aventail cover/ ...

Sean M

I fear the word Giache, giaco, is usually associated to a short maile garment http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/224small.html Hi Signo, thanks for dropping in! Florio is great, but more than 200 years later than my source from 1368/9. It is a note that the archivist has received (or ordered, I for...

Sean M

So saying your rate should be "$100/hr." I feel is wrong and too high, for these reasons: 1st: The current market will not bare that price. 2nd: Even among many other professions with high overhead, cost of work space, tools, insurance..., $100/hr. is on the high side. 3rd: This rate is too high, U...

Sean M

Now, Victor Gay collected French citations which make "jaque" in the 14th century sound like the garment worn over the haubergeon: https://archive.org/stream/glossairearc ... 2/mode/2up

But I still have exactly one example of this word used south of the Alps before 1500.

Sean M

Yes, unfortunately the Italians do not seem to 'go in' for organizing snippets of trecento sources. They have some good dictionaries and some articles which give you their best guess of what a word means, but not collections of several dozen citations for a word with dates like the Pennsylvania MED,...

Sean M

Well, linen armour is a great project for cold weather and small apartments!

A Chroniques de St. Dennis quilted coat, machine-sewn, take-one-measurement-and-I-send-you-the-garment, is on my list of possible projects, but I don't know if I am a good enough businessmen to make it worth my time.

Sean M

Darrell Markewitz has two posts about the economics of knifemaking, and how it has changed since the 1970s, on his blog: Layered Steel / Global Markets . He figures that when he was making custom knives, he had trouble earning half minimum wage, and that as fast as he mastered the art and acquired n...

Sean M

Thanks Gerhard, sometimes things are just obvious to people who farm but not to city folks.

Sean M

Italians in the 1360s and 1370s occasionally use the word il giache which seems to be the same word as French jaque and English jakke . The question is whether a jack is already a thick soft armour which you would only wear if you wanted protection or to look tough, or whether it was still a vague t...

Sean M

It is good to see someone offering these! Waxed tablets were used from the early Bronze Age into the renaissance, so they are useful for all kinds of purposes. Have you thought of offering versions where the wood is in one piece? In the writing boards I know best, the Bronze Age one from Ulu Burun a...

Sean M

I think downplaying archers for the English especially is off in a major way. I think part of the problem is often in the past people have very heavily focused on archers and largely seen them as autonomous or in rather exaggerated ways. But pushing it too far the other way is equally wrong. I agre...

Sean M

Winter cold and apartment living is one reason why nonmetallic armor still gets made for the SCA. I still think that your idea of a jack or gambeson would work well for SCA fighting. There were people selling them ready-made in the 14th century, so there has to be a way to shape them historically b...

Sean M

Customers of the brothers Bonis often bought silk ribbon to border their chaperons in the 1340s. Bertus Brocamp found a similar item in the accounts of Jan van Blois from 1362/3 . Has anyone tried the various kinds of modern silk ribbon for purposes like that? Something 3/4" to 1" wide would probabl...

Sean M

Here's are another example of one of those market wallets that just came across my Pinterest feed. It seems like they are very common once you recognize them as "a thing". Mac, I am glad I have added something to your list of 'medieval material culture'! It might be fun to make some of these of cer...

Sean M

Glad that your book is coming along! I think I cited some of this research in my Master's thesis, talking about how even 10,000 archers (which is not many in an ancient context) means organizing to produce hundreds of thousands of arrows to standard specifications. "considering how that God of his i...

Sean M

The Bonis accounts from Montalban in Languedoc contain an item from September 1345: five ells of white plush fustian ( fustani blanc pelut ), four and a half ells of linen, an ounce and a half of white thread, an ounce of green thread and half a pound of cotton wadding ( cotomapus ) to make a jupon....

Sean M

Well, I did say "medieval" in the first page, and there are not any regulars here who work on anything much before the 13th century ... I had thought that the Negroli armour was just etched and gilt. "Heroic Armour of the Italian Renaissance" implies so, but there are some photos which look like thi...

Sean M

Some of the videos of people carving tsubas I have seen are beautiful. It has been good to see these threads on etching and gilding even though those are not crafts I am interested in trying. Have you already dealt with the Koftgari technique? Unfortunately, no. Because I am not a metalworker, I am ...

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: Planning many lame legs

Medieval Scale Armour

Re: A doublet of white linen

Re: Wallace collection book WITH digital catalogue

Re: Clamping tools in armourers workshop first mentions?

Re: Clamping tools in armourers workshop first mentions?

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: Lining Covered Armour: Pros and Cons

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: Early 15th century Litunania

Re: For the Italians: il giache

Re: Tent Canvas

Re: For the Italians: il giache

Re: Jacopo Cavalli and pointing 14th c Italian arm harness

Re: For the Italians: il giache

Re: $100/hr shop rate

Re: For the Italians: il giache

Re: For the Italians: il giache

Re: Working in the cold

Re: $100/hr shop rate

Re: So many feathers

For the Italians: il giache

Re: Wax writing wood tablet with wooden stylus. 35-45$

Re: So many feathers

Re: Working in the cold

Re: Short Pleated Cloaks

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: So many feathers

Re: Sir John Smythe on Arming Doublets

Re: Inlay on plate armour

Re: Inlay on plate armour