The Armour Archive

Jason Grimes

Hi Gregory, Sorry to say, but your first picture is a frankensuit. It is a mishmash of several different time periods, and they don't even go very well together. The legs and tassets could be from around the 1550's, the breastplate from about 1580, the pauldrons and maybe the arms date from the earl...

Jason Grimes

Yes!! You got it!

Just changing out the leather and readjusting the rivet holes should fix it up. That and thinner leather.

Jason Grimes

Oops, I didn't see your pic until I submitted my post. It looks to me that your leather is too thick. You need some leather that is about half as thick, but well stretched so that the lames will not sag over time and use. This layout really only works if you have a central leather too. You need some...

Jason Grimes

Ah, I see now. Does it do this while someone is wearing them? It could be like you said that the leather you used may need to be worn in a little. Or the leather is too thick. It could also be how you measured out the distance between the rivet holes on the leathers. What you want on the sliding riv...

Jason Grimes

Hi Klaus, You can, of course, make them how every you like. In my own personal experience leathers can collaps more then sliding rivets. With sliding rivets, the lames will only move as far as the slot that the rivet is in. For leathers it depends on how they are riveted to the lames. If you are riv...

Jason Grimes

Everything Kat said, yep.

Also the higher the carbon content the lower the melting temp of the steel. So if you did get the links up to melting temp, the link would melt before a low carbon rivet. But as Kat said, you will not get up to those temps.

Jason Grimes

This picture has been discussed before. The rolling mill is a rolling mill Looking exactly as in old illustrations (and as one in a book I once had) The problem is that it wouldn't make a very good rolling mill either with the one side open like it is. This tool has aspects of both a jenny and a ro...

Jason Grimes

I just string the links on to a length of wire and bury them under the coals. I then wait until they are all red hot and then I take them out and let them cool slowly. I overlap mine before annealing and flattening, well actually I cut the links with an overlap built in. But I still adjust the ends ...

Jason Grimes

Looking good so far norsemaille. Listen to Ceawlin and anneal your links before flattening, it makes constructing the links so much better. Annealing not only softens the metal to flatten the link, the overlapped ends are also held in place by the scale created during the heating. This means a lot f...

Jason Grimes

What is the thing under the stump for? m It looks just about like a modern rolling mill to me, only it's not on a bench. And three to four hundred years old. And that giant drop hammer thingy in section 6 is scary as all hell. I don't think I could be in the same room as that, let alone close enoug...

Jason Grimes

Let me know if i'm wrong Hal, but I think everyone has missed it. Look in the lower right hand side of Hal's posted picture. There is a strange tool that is mounted on top of a post. It has a sharp pointy thing on a metal arm or strap attached to a metal body with a rectangular slot in it.

Jason Grimes

That's a good one Hal, I have no idea. Maybe a punch of some kind?

Jason Grimes

Yes, yes, definitely count me in too Brian!!

Jason Grimes

InsaneIrish - you have a PM.

Jason Grimes

I don't understand. You have all rights to post pictures. For most museums, much of their funding comes from the collections they hold. Historically they keep a tight grip on any photographs of pieces in it. This is understandable as funding is hard for them to get and they need every penny. About ...

Jason Grimes

Well I checked the image, and the guy holding the pike over his head is wearing spaulders instead of munions. There is another soldier who looks like he is wearing munions (but it is hard to tell) and is holding a halberd over his head.

Jason Grimes

Sorry guys, if I ever want a chance to actually go and see some of these museum collections, it's probably not a good idea to have images of the collection on line. I wish there was a way to do it, but the museums are not interested in anything like this, even for research purposes. But with this co...

Jason Grimes

Hi Ratsha, Check out this thread here: m To answer your question on the other forum, the central leathers must always be riveted to the backplate of the gorget. This allows you to open up the front plate of the gorget and put the munion on. The rivet point(s) are usually hard to see because the fron...

Jason Grimes

That helmet looks great Anders!! Do you have picts of the contemporary illustrations? In style it reminds me of some Etrustcan helmets. Great job!!

Jason Grimes

Thanks Patrick!! That explains it.

Jason Grimes

Thanks Ernst, you're too kind. I looked in Claude Blair's "European Armour" and he states that the morion, in the style we are all accostomed to, started around 1550 in Italy. This is with the tall comb, and upturned front and back brim. He has a line drawing of an early morion from 1540, although i...

Jason Grimes

That's a good question. Given Ernst's portrait that helmet very well could have been manufactured during the last several years in Niccolo Silva's career. The brim does not have the usual shape that I have seen on other Morions. It could be an earlier style. The brass rosetts bother me a little as y...

Jason Grimes

Well nothing in the Negroli book. I did do a quick search on the web for the portrait, but no luck finding it. I did find a site here... m that states... "For men the signal event might be a military victory, attainment of high office or title, or marriage. Hans EworthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s portraits of Sir Thom...

Jason Grimes

Thats very interesting, I wonder if the portrait could have been done posthumusly? I think there may be another very early morion in the Negroli book, I will have to look after I get off work.

Jason Grimes

My quess would be around the 1560's, but I don't have any hard and fast dates. I would be very supprized if they came about in the 1550's or earlier though. By the 1580's morions were very common and popular.

Jason Grimes

Thats great!! Is this your first one?

Jason Grimes

Yes, infact I like to check the fit of the piece after each course. This way I know it will have a good fit or if something is off, I have the opportunity to fix it.

Jason Grimes

Thanks Juhani, Clermont, Juhani - Yes, advice from a friend convinced me that if I ever wanted to actually go to the museums and get a first hand look at origional armour, it would be in my best interests to take the pictures down. I felt bad doing it because it is such an important resource for tho...

Jason Grimes

Thanks Kase, glad you liked it. I am also very inexpirienced in most aspects of armouring- and raising is included so i cant do much with it... in my test i ended up with a pringles like shape that is concave one way and convex another... also because i think i work hardened the piece of scrap i was...

Jason Grimes

Here is a little tutorial on just this subject that I put together. It's not finished and not perfect.

http://www.grimmarmoury.com/armour/proj ... ject1.html

Let me know if it helps and if you see any problems with it.

Jason Grimes

Not to make it harder on you. But you might want to consider the loss of energy from the arrow or bolt bending just as it is fired. The stiffer the shaft the more energy is transfered to the projectile. Some crossbow bolts were made with bulging sides on the shaft. I'm assuming to add more mass to i...

Jason Grimes

Hi Villerica, I have a couple... This one is a little hard to see, but it is an interesting one, ca. 1500 - 1550. m Here are two views of one that isn't from a museum, but from Hermann Historica auction house, ca. 1550 - 1570. m m Hope this helps. Just as an asside the kettle hat, at least how I und...

Jason Grimes

I was just thinking that they might have just filed/ground/polished the growth ridges off of each scale. I don't know how that would effect the strength of the scales as I haven't tried it yet. So the whole texture thing could be moot anyway. amhlaidgh - I was thinking of putting about 2 to 3 holes ...

Jason Grimes

It is a very complex pattern though, kind of like a sea shell. So more like mother of pearl? No, sorry I didn't explain very well. More like the outside of the shell where you can see the growth rings. Baleen is just smoother. Here is a picture of some baleen that I found on the net. m This is from...

Jason Grimes

Thanks very much for your offer to help out! I'll have to sit and calculate about how much I would need - I am assuming that like many of the early gauntlet depictions, it wiill mostly cover the backside of than hand, the wrist, metcarpal and fingers essentially. It will be a little bit before I am...