The Armour Archive

Sean M

Wow, that sounds like yet another technique! As far as the archaeologist who examined the bronze examples can tell (and if my memory of his book is correct), the Assyrians just cut scratches into the surface of the plate, probably a bit wider at the bottom than the top like a dovetail joint in woodw...

Sean M

When I have time, I will have a look at "Heroic Armour of the Italian Renaissance" for some surviving armour with inlay, just for completeness' sake.

Sean M

Are you refering to damascening? I don't know. Does "damascening" mean "inlay" to you? I try not to use "damascus" and "damascening" because it seems like they are vague carryalls for different techniques which cover an object with a pattern of light and dark lines. So to some people damascus steel...

Sean M

Maybe worth mentioning: Tina Anderlini's article also discusses several other surviving shirts and a woman's aketon: a quilted body-warmer and figure-shaper.

Sean M

Probably relevant: Mac's thread from 2008 with a list of the materials in 100 medieval stone moulds, and why he uses African wonderstone viewtopic.php?f=16&t=87206&p=2822401&hi ... e#p2822401

Sean M

The English-language publication of the St. Louis shirt by people who actually handled it is in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 11 (there is also a Francophone one in a magazine called Moyen-Âge ) https://boydellandbrewer.com/medieval-clothing-and-textiles-11-hb.html If you read French, there is an i...

Sean M

According to Anna Grzelak, the Swedes and Finns call small bags with battens väska or väskbygel. The Saami made them of hide in recent times. Supposedly, Viking reenactors like them for carrying their cell phone and wallet. There are some examples in Swedish museums like: https://digitaltmuseum.se/s...

Sean M

Thanks Mac! Some techniques seem to have been popular for one kind of ironwork but not others. I have seen swords and knives from a few different cultures with maker's marks inlaid in wire.

Sean M

Inlaying copper or silver into iron is a very old technique: Layard dug up helmets decorated that way in Iraq. Is any known medieval armour decorated with that technique?

Sean M

If you wanto to see it under another perspective, try this: A customer want a thing done for him, instead of hammering just a piece of metal for him, you stack 3 or 4 , you sell your better piece to the customer and the other off the shelf, if you sell them, they are almost free money as most of th...

Sean M

The red colour of the plate after it was removed from the etching paste reminded me of the red which the painter of the Greenwich Album used to paint surfaces which we think were blued. Is that just a coincidence? I know nothing about etching ... it was not used to decorate the armour which I study,...

Sean M

I'm on the AA since 2002,and a lot has been said, done, thought on this very topic. Making armour as a living is a topic that should be handled like an unexploded ordnance : with extreme care, and this could not prevent a detonation anyway. Having said that, there are a lot of problems of armourmak...

Sean M

Don't forget the Mercenary's Tailor. He says that he started selling armour in the early 1990s, quit his day job in 2003 and eventually hired several employees for his armour business, and shut down in 2011. http://merctailor.webs.com/about-us

Sean M

Also ... when I was doing historical fencing, there was nobody but Terry Tindal making dedicated kit, then Windrose Armoury offered steel sparring helmets, and now there are half a dozen companies just making soft armour (gloves, gorgets, jackets) for longsword, rapier, and sword-and-buckler tournam...

Sean M

There doesn't seem to be a non-SCA market right now; HEMA isn't generally using steel armor, and there's no big social/movie/tv/internet magnet around which to form a demand. On the other hand, lightsabers are big now, and there's several manufacturers making a living off lightsabers or a side inco...

Sean M

He does have a set of patterns and instructions for making the different kinds of Men Yoroi with some sheet steel, a couple of hammers, an anvil, and a sharpie, and point out some little details which you might overlook in pictures. But he does not go into the nitty-gritty of the hammer work, becaus...

Sean M

Hi Michael, probably the best place to start in learning Japanese armouring is Anthony Bryant's site http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/katchu.html It gives an overview and practical advice. The menpō is much more 'sculpted' than the other parts of Japanese armour, but some of the people here who m...

Sean M

Yes, "market wallet" just seems to be a name for these which the 18th/19th century crowd uses. I just use it because it is shorter than saying "double sack with a slit in the middle of one side, worn draped over the shoulder or over a stick" again and again ... I was not trying to confuse anyone. I ...

Sean M

It would be great if someone took Macs research and organized a workshop at a SCA war or ren fest or other event like that. Anyways, the first project will be a market wallet or two, because that is the project which I can make with 0 new tools and the least staring at art and making test versions. ...

Sean M

Mac, thanks for the patterns! I will haul out those Tacuinum images and try to get Pinterest to work on the weekend. Pinterest is one of those sites which wants you to enable a lot of scripts and log in before it works. Your Karlsruher Passion bag looks like the cut of a classy modern bag, except th...

Sean M

Howdy, Regardless of time period, location and even authenticity, what are the top ten easiest armouring projects? Please list them from easiest to hardest. The assumption is that the new armourer has $200 to work with, standard home tools like a carpenters hammer, and can drive to a scrap yard, Ho...

Sean M

One seldom seen a thing like a pilgrim's scrip on anyone but a pilgrim... so I'm not convinced that they are a good alternative for a really strict interpretation. On the other hand, they are pretty convenient, and I have two of them in a medium weight soft cow hide. A non specific alternative to t...

Sean M

I like the idea, you might consider offering them in multiple sizes, but I'm not certain what I would use them for in a practical sense because we do carry different things. I suppose if I was at an event/display I might pack my kit in one of them then change and throw my modern clothes in it inste...

Sean M

So I now have some heavyweight undyed linen and hemp for making some bags, sacks, packs, and other ways to carry 14th century stuff around events. I am thinking of starting with one of the classic double bags with a slit in the middle which can be used as saddlebags or draped over a stick or a shoul...

Sean M

Has Trevor Absolon started publishing again? Do tell us more! I thought that after his first book on helmets in that private Japanese collection he shut everything down.

Sean M

Piotr tried a bump on the demicuisse too and found that it did not work. The museum dates Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Nr. MA 1155 to "1390/1400" ... I don't know who chose 1420 on effigies and brasses, but you look at other art and you take your best guess. Hmm. That's interesting. I think of the leg...

Sean M

Also, it is interesting that St. George's left knee has such a 'bump' on the lame below the knee, and that a small gap has emerged between the side of the knee and the lame. We talked about him before at http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=176329&hilit=Nationalmuseum The museu...

Sean M

I think that my greaves are a bit wide at the bottom edge too. Given the source material which Piotr had to work with, I can't complain ... they do make riding my trusty steed (a bicycle) a bit difficult, but that is not a medieval problem. I like the idea of imitating that St. George in Nurnberg th...

Sean M

Calibs / chalybs /χάλυψ for "steel" is one of those names which can lead you down a rabbithole back into the Amarna Age and the first smelters who got really good at making iron and steel. I made the assumption that the guy who did the translation into German had done the best thing here, and just ...

Sean M

No, but since the helm turns with my head, the face opening can be made much smaller than a grand bacinet's. They have HUGE face openings!! That is a good point! "Best practice" around 1400 seems to have been to rely on the camail and sides of the helmet as much as possible to protect the face, sin...

Sean M

It is a pity that 90, 99% of the forms of armour in use between 1350 and 1450 do not survive. All that we have are a few scraps of mail and bare plate and four quilted garments. For the other kinds, where we just have art and documents and rusty scraps in museum drawers, there is always going to be ...

Sean M

Also, there is a new Early English Texts Society volume on painting and staining (ISBN 9780198789086). That might point to some recent studies of technical terms, although painters' chemistry tended to be less foolhardy adventurous than etchers' and gilders'. If you can get to an academic library, t...

Sean M

I am not skilled in the arts of al-khem and I am out of practice for 15th century Latin, but optime is an adverb, so et optime apparebit is "and it will appear very well" ("perfectly" like in the other text would be fine too). pone in furno cum pane ut bene comburatur et tunc vocatur sal combustum i...

Sean M

Thanks for the references to Hvide Horse Armoury and William West of http://englyshe-plate-armourie.co.uk I had not heard of either. Anyways, I just thought this would be a good topic that different kinds of people could contribute too. 3) good armours take a long time to be made, and people tend to...

Sean M

Just to complicate things, St. George seems to wear a coat of thin cloth with those sleeves which are narrow at the body and wide at the opening. That feels like a 1400-ish fashion to me, and it shows up in German effigies into the first quarter of the 15th century. https://bookandsword.files.wordpr...

Re: Inlay on plate armour

Re: Inlay on plate armour

Re: Inlay on plate armour

Re: The St. Louis Shirt and the Bonis Accounts

Re: Where does one find soap stone?

The St. Louis Shirt and the Bonis Accounts

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Inlay on plate armour

Inlay on plate armour

Re: Armouring As A Career

Re: New Nova: Secrets of the Shining Knight

Re: Armouring As A Career

Re: Armouring As A Career

Re: Armouring As A Career

Re: Armouring As A Career

Re: Looking for assistance with a menpō

Re: Looking for assistance with a menpō

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Top Ten Easiest Armouring Projects?

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Double Sacks/Market Wallets

Re: Samurai Armour Volume 1 The Japanese Cuirass Trevor Abso

Re: Leg Harness

Re: Leg Harness

Re: Leg Harness

Re: Historical Etching Recipes

Re: Modern Armour in the English Style

Re: Modern Armour in the English Style

Re: Historical Etching Recipes

Re: Historical Etching Recipes

Re: Modern Armour in the English Style

Re: A St. George from Styria