The Armour Archive

Jason Grimes

Hi Konstantin, I had thought of this, but all my research has said that oil painting was not popular until the Van Eyck brothers promoted it in the 1420's and 1430's. This would have been over 100 years after this style of helm. Up to that point artists appear to have used egg tempra. I know that th...

Jason Grimes

Hi Cannonshots, That one looks like they took the picture of the Dargen helm and photoshopped it to change how the oculars look. Here is a picture of the Dargen helm. http://www.grimmarmoury.com/images/armour/dargen.jpg Notice how the rust patterns match and the missing rivets.

Jason Grimes

Hi All I have just finished a great helm in a similar style of the "Dargen" helm. Here is a picture of the original: Dargen Great Helm I purchased a great helm kit from Halberds and modified it to more conform to the Dargen type helm. Thanks Hal, great kit! Hal was kind enough to add an ex...

Jason Grimes

Hi Olafvikingr,

The helmets in the second and third pictures are not Norse. They are the re-enforcements for WWII German pilot helmets. If I'm not miss-taken mostly used by pilots of the ME262. Do some searches for the "Strong Helmet" to get the full scoop.

Jason Grimes

It could be a girdle plate. Girdle plates were popular with Kastenbrust armour and made a come-back in the 16th century. It is about 50 to 60 years from this to Kastenbrust, so YMMV. A girdle plate would give him a little more flexibility without loosing to much protective value. ??

Jason Grimes

Another argument to support that this is at least a solid breastplate is that it has a strong medial ridge. Not that you couldn't have a medial ridge with a cop, I just don't know how useful it would be. One of the authors in the Met's Negroli book used this effigy as an example of a early form of R...

Jason Grimes

Thats the piece i am referring to Jason, i have it here in front of me, just have no way to scan and share it. Oops, sorry about that. I thought you had another reference. I scanned it in but unfortunately I cropped the left hand side a bit. It is a fairly large file to get the details out, FYI. m

Jason Grimes

WMA, there is a picture of the bas-relief in Lionello Boccia's article "Colaccio Beccadelli: an Emilian Knight of about 1340" that was printed in Robert Held's "Arms and Armor Annual". Even more cool Lionello has another picture of a miniature that depicts these same spaulders and dates from the sam...

Jason Grimes

If I saw these in a chronicle and not a religious manuscript or a painting of a religious figure I would be more inclined to call them real. I used to think the same, but I'm starting to change my mind about this. Just thinking off the top of my head, I think that probably 90% of all art work from ...

Jason Grimes

If they existed it was only in parade armor. The snail-shape is a visual cue from the artist to the viewer that the (in this case, armor) and the people wearing it come from the past. Much like the way we use certain high-tech-looking devices with bright glowing blue panels as a visual cue to say "...

Jason Grimes

It looks to me that the suit in the museum photo is the same one as the one being worn by the Koryak on the right hand side of the expedition photo. The cords do look a bit worn and broken in places, but you need to remember in the article they state that these suits were family heirlooms and had no...

Jason Grimes

Many people look at these spaulders (pauldrons?) as artistic license. They might represent armour from the ancient or roman past. If you look at paintings from the first part of the 15th century, you can find many, many examples of this kind of shoulder protection. In the case of the painting you li...

Jason Grimes

Ffoulkes has in his book this painting and another one by the same artist. The second depicts a nobleman wearing full mail sleeves that are strapped at the wrist. Can't tell from the painting if the mail he is wearing are voiders or not. He is wearing a doublet over the mail that obscures the should...

Jason Grimes

Hi Ralph, thanks, I don't have a heat source to try the welding but I will try the bend and see what comes out. The shaft has spots on it that are pitted like it's been hot formed. In a couple of these spots it looks like there is some fiber strings, but it is too hard to tell for sure. Hammerhand -...

Jason Grimes

I have a couple of picts, but I'm not sure they are what you are looking for...

http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/Doublet.jpg
http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/25126_G.jpg

Jason Grimes

I have made friends with a local sourdough here and he has given me a bolt that he thinks is wrought iron. It's 5 11/16" long, has a square head with a tiny tree molded on the top, and the shank is 1/4" in diameter. I was going to just simply hammer the threaded end cold and see if it separates into...

Jason Grimes

Ok, finaly got the pictures up. Sorry took so long, I was having router issues. I grabbed 5 pages from the article here:

http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/02a00020_l.1.gif
http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/02a00020_l.2.jpg
http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/02a00020_l.3.gif
http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/02a00020_l.4.jpg
http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/02a00020_l.5.gif

Enjoy..

Jason Grimes

Jason...go back and delete your 3 posts...some doubles up there. I couldnt access that image...can you post it? Darn, it looks like I was able to get in because I work for the University here and they allowed me in because I'm coming in from a University account. I will try to get the images out an...

Jason Grimes

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Jason Grimes

Id love to see that picture James! There is also a photo on a Plate in the Ashmolean Museum showing a man with a helmet in his left hand and in his right, what appears to be a knife. Above the man is a row of carving knives.....below him appears to be a square block of some kind. Now the question i...

Jason Grimes

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Jason Grimes

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Jason Grimes

Awesome, thanks Igor.

Jason Grimes

I have seen a picture of a stone carving that depicted a Greek armourer raising a helmet on a stake. I don't think that you can get to a Corinthian type helmet with out some sort of raising or brazing. Roman helmets are much more shallow though. ?? Didn't the Romans get a lot of their technical know...

Jason Grimes

Does anyone know if the breaths on the Dargen greathelm were on both sides of the helmet or just the right? Nicolle, with his line drawing in "Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era", suggests that there are breaths on both sides, but I would like to be sure. Does anyone have any picts or first hand i...

Jason Grimes

Hey Karen,

I like your site, lots of information. FYI - I had some troubles looking at the pictures of the black work??

Thanks,

Jason Grimes

Are those drum heads in the second picture? Very nice pictures, got more?

Jason Grimes

Jason - if there are any Inuit People pieces that would be of particular interest let me know, and I'll see what I can get Yes, please. Anything you think is interesting. The nations I'm most interested in are the Chukchi, Yupik, Inupiat, Tlingit, and the Inuit. Thank you very much. Are you going t...

Jason Grimes

Thanks Tim, so there is a very good possibility that the Scythians could have influenced the native tribes in Siberia as far as armour styles are concerned.

Jason Grimes

my question is Is the lamalar slit up the back and if not how would you walk that reaches below the knees and i dont know about you but walking in snow requires alot of lifting of the legs even if it was slit in back it would still be difficult If I remember correctly the Inuit would hike the skirt...

Jason Grimes

mordreth wrote:You're wellcome - hard to think of Siberia as too far south

Well, "south Siberia" is too far south.

Jason Grimes

This stuff is reminiscent of other Scythian armours I have seen in photos and drawings. Though all I have turned up is examples of scale (or splint) construction---not "suspended" lamellar construction. Very interesting! This construction is pretty typical of the arctic area in general. That is of ...

Jason Grimes

Hi Abom, Because I live in Alaska I have an interest in these armour types. How are you interested in them? I have a few (about 6) origional examples of lameller plates made of bone and antler. Metal lameller is much more rare and appears to be a little later then the organic plates. There is a nice...

Jason Grimes

My theory is that the shape of the raising hammer head gives you more control over how the metal moves. For instance, a round faced hammer like a ball-pein will push the metal in all directions at once. But because the head of a raising hammer is wider then it is tall, the metal is pushed more perpe...

Jason Grimes

I have had the best results with the following method. There is probably a better way, but my German is not so good. When you first open the page look to the side panel on the left. At the top is a pull-down menu and a button labled "Auswahlen". The pull down lists catagories to search the archives ...

Painting a great helm

Question for the wrought iron experts

Dargen greathelm question.