The Armour Archive

Jason Grimes

Excellent, so you think that this is wrought iron then? When I did the spark test on it, the sparks feathered a little, almost the same as a piece of hot rolled mild steel I tested as well. I'm not sure that there is much carbon in it. Unfortunately forges in the ground don't work to well up here. I...

Jason Grimes

That is very cool Thomas! Are you going to do the fancy snail shell embossing on it like the ones in the Van Eyke painting? These are so very strange, it's great that you are doing them. I look forward to seeing them finished.

Jason Grimes

Hey Hal, I not too sure yet. I'm not even 100% sure that it's even wrought yet. I was thinking of making one of those migration era spangen helms like this one here: http://www.frostyfoot.com/images/15745_a.jpg But I don't think I have enough metal to do one. That and I don't have a forge set-up yet...

Jason Grimes

Thanks Stefhan, I was doing that just as you wrote your post. Dang, with just a hack saw that was a job! I hit it with a hammer until it broke off. The texture looks kind of like cast iron, although there is a shelf that looks like it has a grain structure. The grain is very small. I tried to captur...

Jason Grimes

The wrought iron came in today in bar form, now I'm going to have to finish setting up my workshop to play around with it. It's very corroded, except were they cut it off of some larger piece. I ordered 3 pounds worth and he gave me almost 4 pounds (3.9). I looked for the till-tale sign of the wood ...

Jason Grimes

I'm getting the same thing, maybe the PFD is broken or in a different format then normal. ??

Jason Grimes

I still have the first gauntlet I ever made that has copper rivets. It's almost 30 years old and I haven't noticed any corrosion related to the rivets. I will have to double check, but the last time I looked at it, all it had was the usual rust. Edited to add: I don't think you need to worry too muc...

Jason Grimes

Stefhan wrote:I picked up some wrought from these folks:

Thanks Stefhan, I will check these folks out as well.

Jason Grimes

I bought some to try out (3 pounds) so I will let you know what it looks like when I get it. Up here in Fairbanks there is no wrought iron to be found, I looked and looked. There really wasn't much up here until after the turn of the last century so there just isn't any old iron around. I wish more ...

Jason Grimes

+1 what Ralph said. You don't need to worry about the edges thinning too much because the thin parts will be under the breastplate and fauld. I find them fun to do as well. You can do long ones like the one I did here for my Maximillian cuirass. http://www.frostyfoot.com/images/AIS.jpg If I remember...

Jason Grimes

That is looking great D!! Both the shoes and the hat came out really sharp. I would have to agree with Irish on the cod piece. They were usually sewn to the hose on the bottom and then pointed to the hose on the top corners. Here are some examples: http://www.frostyfoot.com/images/alp_museum03g.jpg ...

Jason Grimes

WvK - I would be really reluctant to try and do sliding rivets with plastic. I would think that just using three straps would be the way to go. Wade - Thanks for the information, that is very interesting. Do you think that as you get towards the end of the century that they used this method more? Th...

Jason Grimes

Very nice!! That's a lot of rivets.

How did you do the gilding?

Jason Grimes

Excellent! Looking very nice.

Jason Grimes

Ok, I found a couple of woodcuts. The first is one of the ones in Landsknecht Soldier.

http://www.frostyfoot.com/images/office ... banten.jpg

The next one shows a really good view of the back of one. Look at the guard on the left with his back to us.

http://www.frostyfoot.com/images/Prisoners.jpg

Warning, large pictures!

Jason Grimes

Were you looking for something like these? m m m These are a kind of hair net although I do not know of any extent examples. Ffoulkes called them a padded sallet cap but I wouldn't take that as a good source. These are very different then an arming cap and appear to only be worn by very wealthy men....

Jason Grimes

Just looking at the picture it looks like the gauntlets, couters, and the spaulders are gilded. I can't tell if the poleyns and the sabbatons are or not. If so then they were most likely made from copper or copper alloy and then gilded. It would have been a very magnificent armour with the gold and ...

Jason Grimes

Wade - Very nice pauldrons! Why do you think they just strapped the lames instead of having sliding rivets? I was thinking that maybe it was because these are munition pauldrons and that because they are cheaper they didn't put the rivets in. But these don't look (at least to my eye) to be munition....

Jason Grimes

One last question, would almaine shoulders just be strapped all the way down? Almaine shoulders or munions are riveted and strapped just like the tassets. Sliding rivets on the back and leathers on the middle and front. And Yes, both the sliding rivets and the straps go all the way down to the last...

Jason Grimes

That's pretty much what I thought. This will let the legs spread out pretty well. I knew about the sliding rivet on the inside, I just wanted to make sure about the strapping. Thanks very much. Actually the sliding rivets are on the outside of the legs. It makes sense when you think about it as you...

Jason Grimes

Hi WvK, This is kind of a tall order. Inside picts of armour are rare enough, trying to find something specific will be very difficult. I will look through my pictures and see if I have any thing. Some more specifics from you would help. Is this early or late 16th century? Did you want picts of a cu...

Jason Grimes

If that was galvanized wire less than 16 gauge, it would need to be annealed and have the zinc stripped. My 1/4", 17g rings all skip, 100%, if they are not stripped. I burn em, so they get strupped and annealed at the same time. No, not galvanized, I was lucky and found some black annealed wir...

Jason Grimes

I do anneal prior to flattening. I have made a few rings without annealing by accident without much trouble but it's only a handful, probably 5 or 10, not enough to figure out if skip offs would be more frequent without annealing. Skipping off isn't a problem but it IS more frequent with these ring...

Jason Grimes

I was actually angling my cutters to get that same kind of overlap, but I had all sorts of problems getting the correct amount of overlap so it was hit and miss. This is perfect though and so much more simple. Have you seen any problems with the ends skipping off each other or do you anneal before y...

Jason Grimes

I like your method of cutting the links. The overlap is measured automatically and you don't need to worry about it. Very nice solution. I had cut a slot in my cutters so I could cut over one loop and into the other. Your method is much better. Thanks for sharing.

Jason Grimes

Excellent! Mmmmm, Kastenbrust goodness.

Jason Grimes

at last its finished (nearly) ; ) just have to put the liner leather in, drill the ear and crest hole's and add all the file worked lines on the fluting (gulp).. any tips?? Fred. Excellent job on the helmet! As to the incised lines on the flutes, my WIP theory is that they chiseled in the lines bef...

Jason Grimes

Sorry to hear that Thomas, did you ask her if you could borrow a camera? You could always duct tape the filter on your camera. Seriously, I have heard about people who did it, although you might have to build a support for it and make sure you don't cover any sensors you might need. The only other p...

Jason Grimes

Very cool video Thomas. You can use a polarizing filter on your camera (if it has filter threads) and almost completely remove the reflections when you film through glass. They are not too expensive either.

Jason Grimes

Wow, Tony that is great! The gauntlets are definitely longer than appears in the other image. I think I would scoot this date up about 5 years to 1420. What a difference a perspective change makes, eh? One thought regarding the virtue sticky cuirass.....laced/rivetted to the mail hauberk (from the ...

Jason Grimes

Thank you Jason, for the info. This helps me a lot. i never thought, that this type of Breastplate remains to 1510. ThatÂ´s really interesting. Do you have a picture of this woodcut or know the name of it? IÂ´ve heard, that the majority of re-enactment- people today have the opinion, that armour wa...

Jason Grimes

Sorry about the web site, it's toast.

I should remove it from my sig. I just pick up images when ever I can, but I don't host them anymore.

Jason Grimes

Jason Grimes

Ok here are some early Kastenbrust possibilities. I don't have any guarantee that the dates are good on any of these and only put them up to add to the discussion. These are supposed to be dated to 1383 but that might be the date of the persons death, not when the funeral effigy was made (which coul...

Jason Grimes

Russ Mitchell wrote:I have nothing to do with any points at all: all I did was translate the passage from Hungarian.

Ack, sorry Russ, it was Andrew I was responding to.