The Armour Archive

Jason Grimes

If you need to go with thicker metal, just cut it like the armour's of old did, with a cold chisel. All you need a big-hunk-of-metal, any will do (an old vise, etc). If you want to protect the surface of your big-hunk-of-metal, you can put a piece of scrap metal on top of it first then chisel out yo...

Jason Grimes

Thank, that is kind of like what I was thinking. After thinking some more, I think I remember a pair of spaulders in the Negroli book that had some leathers and pins attached? I will check when I get home tonight and see.

Jason Grimes

Thanks Wade, Do you remember if there was some sort of plate/metal interface between the leather strap and the pin? I know that more pauldron/spaulder pins were attached to a hinged metal plate that was riveted to the gorget. Did they attach the pin to a plate which was then attached to the leather,...

Jason Grimes

"not all that interesting", he says. On the German couters, I know these were attached to the arms by pins on leather straps. Have you ever seen an extent pin/leather survival? The holes look very large so the pins must have been pretty large themselves. Or do you think that these went on ...

Jason Grimes

I don't think they are thinking things all the way through. :/ If you are wearing full leg armour, you are riding a horse, it's carrying most of the weight. When they fought on foot, the first thing to go was the leg harness. ?!? They are starting to mix apples and oranges here.

Jason Grimes

Yes, there are paintings, woodcuts/engravings, and even stained glass that are clearly painted/drawn to show the highlighted 'sheen' one would see in velvet. The Cranach school is very good at representing velvets, for example, but many of the period artists were excellent at depicting these detail...

Jason Grimes

I don't know exactly how these were done, but I can tell you how I would do it if I were making them. To roll the tabs for the hinge I just use a small hammer and push them over about 90 degrees to the inside. Then I flip the plate over and gently continue to hammer the tabs over until they have abo...

Jason Grimes

Excellent! Very cool!

Jason Grimes

For Swiss of the !470's it isn't outdated the Eisenhut was still in use at that time. It is a little outdated for the 1501 yeah but not much I think there would have been a larg portions of troups dressed in much the same way at the same time. Nasty Landsknechts always taking from the Swiss! Yep, i...

Jason Grimes

Actually those guys are Swedish not Swiss.

Their gear was very outdated when the drawings were made (1501?), and also very different from the Swiss Reislaufer who had pretty much the same kind of gear that the Landsknechts had.

Jason Grimes

Yes, even with annealing, the metal would thin and crack though before you were really even started. (Even dishing a proper elbow from 16g could easialy thin the metal down to cardstock thickness at the center if you're not careful.) Raising doesn't thin the metal, and it's the technique that was u...

Jason Grimes

If you go a bit later into the early 15th century you start to see fingerless gauntlets (Kastenbrust). I haven't done much research on the mid to late 14th century, but I don't remember seeing an hourglass gauntlet, either extent or in artwork, that didn't have fingers. Some Kastenbrust gauntlets ha...

Jason Grimes

Here's another pair in a similar style. http://www.tforum.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=4378&st=60 The rivet on the side looks like its just for strapping, can't tell whether it could be for a rider also. It looks like the metacarpal doesn't connect in the middle, and there's a central plate u...

Jason Grimes

"Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?"

- Walt Whitman

Jason Grimes

I don't know that there was a time when metal straps were not used? I have seen them on both ancient Greek and Roman armour. But I don't know enough about medieval armour to give you a firm answer. I have seen them used on mail even, but I don't remember how early the mail was. 15th century maybe?

Jason Grimes

bsrlee wrote: as well ask why there are no solid silver or gold armours.

There is a surviving solid silver breastplate from the 16th century, but I don't think I have a picture of it.

Jason Grimes

I've always thought that those rivets were from the assembly of the effigy, rather that a representation of armor construction. For instance, you'd expect to see armor construction rivets here on the knee articulations. Because we don't I assumed that the sculptor chose to not represent the rivets....

Jason Grimes

I'm looking forward to see how these turn out and how well they work. I made a pair of splints based on the image that Chris posted but they definitely need to be revisited. I would really like to redo the spaulders especially, err and the couters, etc. *sigh*

Jason Grimes

Well, I was under the impression that guilds set minimum quality standards, which is why even cheap pieces usually have tight articualtion, no lumpiness, etc... It is my understanding, at least, that the guilds only really controlled things within the city they were based in. Outside of the cities ...

Jason Grimes

That is just too cool.

It looks like it's had a hard life since 1948, are you going to fix any of the dents (If it's even possible I guess)?

Jason Grimes

Didn't we had a very long discussion about this piece before? That is a very nice reproduction, but he has mixed his time periods. A 16th century brigandine doesn't go so well with 14th century armour I think.

Jason Grimes

I did a similar technique with the saltwater etching method. I attached an electical clamp to one of the wires off of an old computer power supply (I can't remember which pole it was right now) and put a metal plate with a wad of linen cloth wrapped around it in the clamp. The other lead was attache...

Jason Grimes

Is there any chance that they used a colored covering on their sallets to identify themselves in battle? I mean: If we assume that men at arms from time to time would have served under different patrons, then it could make sense that they applied a colored cloth on their helms, otherwise how could ...

Jason Grimes

Hi Jason, Thanks for that. The sallets you've posted - the 'Leichtle', 'Ulm', and RA IV.12 - are all examples of what are called 'black' sallets. As I said in my post, the jury has been in for a couple of years now about the holes on black sallets being for coverings, so you're in good company! The...

Jason Grimes

Marco, I'm not too sure about the style but here is one that might be a match? I think Negroli did some breast plates like this as well.

Jason Grimes

Oh, the other thing that convinced me was the placement of the hole pairs on the tail of the sallets. You can see them in these images: http://www.frostyfoot.com/grimm/images/armour/52290.jpg http://www.frostyfoot.com/grimm/images/armour/2044025156_8606dd774a_b.jpg http://www.frostyfoot.com/grimm/im...

Jason Grimes

I have noticed that, for the most part, if you see two holes put close together that they were used to attach some kind of cloth covering. There are many, many period examples of cloth coverings for armour. The one image that convinced me was this one by Durer: http://www.frostyfoot.com/grimm/images...

Jason Grimes

Even the Roman's moved to iron once they knew how to use it. And the Greeks too, the supposed Philip II of Macedon's cuirass was made from iron and in the shape of a linothorax.

Jason Grimes

That is interesting as I heard/read that the Black Prince's gauntlets are brass that were gilded. You see a lot of copper and brass armour in the 15th century mostly because they hadn't figured out how to gild iron yet. So what you see mostly is brass and copper appliqués that were gilded and then a...

Jason Grimes

Here is what I have, hope it helps. I don't have any information about who took these. I just pulled them off the net as I found them. They also include some other parts of the garniture, like the saddle and horse armour. http://www.frostyfoot.com/grimm/images/armour/oh_arm/DSC00538.jpg http://www.f...

Jason Grimes

There is a color picture in A&AMK but it has a similar angle and the armour is in a similar position as the one you posted. I just found some close-up pictures of this suit in my collection, I should be able to find them easily and post them.

Jason Grimes

Ah, yep, yep, that makes sense. Sorry, I'm used to the 16th century nomenclature. I too have only ever seen them (upper tucked into the lower) that way as well. I imagine that there is a practical reason for it. With the early ones that were closed with a leather strap there might be a danger of hav...

Jason Grimes

Which part are you thinking about? It's probably a problem with nomenclature, but I have always called the entire arm harness the "vambrace". Are you taking about the lower cannon's interface with the couter? A picture would help too.

Jason Grimes

It doesn't look to me that on some of those examples that the bevor is integral with the helmet, looks more like they are separate? Especially the effigies with out the helmet. It's very cool as these might be the fore-runners of the later gothic bevors.

Jason Grimes

I use Castaldo QuickSil a rubber casting compound that works great with pewter and should last for hundreds of castings. The compound comes in two containers and you just mix them 50/50 to start the reaction. It hardens in about 15 min and can withstand up to 800 degrees F temperature. It's a bit pr...

Re: Rondels for Elbow Cops

Re: New bits of armour - have a look

Re: New bits of armour - have a look

Re: New bits of armour - have a look

Re: BBC - Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battle

Re: Period German Hats... of the Landschneckt Design...

Re: Integral hinge question

Re: Armour of Maximilian I --progress and construction photo

Re: I would like an opinion on the correct 15th century helm

Re: I would like an opinion on the correct 15th century helm

Re: Coldforging a Bascinet?

Re: Fingerless hourglass gauntlets?

Re: Churburg Scale Gauntlets 1410 - 1420

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Straps for buckles- leather or metal?

Re: Why is brass/bronze armour virtually nonexistant?

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Early 16th C Munitions Arms (1st project, work in progre

Re: Early 16th C Munitions Arms (1st project, work in progre

Re: Bergman's Joan of arc armour

Re: Search-fu failing: cloth-covered breastplate and mail?

Re: Interesting Etching technique - Opinions?

Re: Small pairs of holes around the bottom edge of Sallets?

Re: Small pairs of holes around the bottom edge of Sallets?

Re: Seeking examples of "longbelly" style armor

Re: Small pairs of holes around the bottom edge of Sallets?

Re: Small pairs of holes around the bottom edge of Sallets?

Re: Why is brass/bronze armour virtually nonexistant?

Re: Why is brass/bronze armour virtually nonexistant?

Re: Photos needed

Re: Photos needed

Re: How do vambrace plates overlap?

Re: How do vambrace plates overlap?

Re: Kettle helms with integrated facial protection

Re: Casting Pewter: Molds