The Armour Archive

Jason Grimes

Do you think that smooth black plastic could be textured with a dremal tool to simulate this? These gloves could look very cool, I love the way the ones on the effigy look. Scales on a flexible background does not seem to me to be enough to function in sca combat. I think that a hardened leather cl...

Jason Grimes

I suspect this may have prompted your question, but one of the best images I've seen of scale gaunts are on the Italian image from the Boccia article I sent you with the visored sugar loaf. A mitten style scalled gauntlet is shown in "Legend of St Dennis" c.1317 Bib.nat., Mss. Fr 2090-2 there's a s...

Jason Grimes

What is a good subsitute for whalebone. White klydex? maybe discolored a bit. I would love to see a picture of these gaunlets, can anyone post a scan or link to these? Or possible email them to me? Hi Budobudo, The "whalebone" we are talking about isn't bone at all but baleen. It's the teeth of a f...

Jason Grimes

Hi Chef, That is interesting. I don't suppose I could have at some future point you purchase some for me and send to me? I had actually considered fishing around for Victorian and Edwardian era corsetts, to rob them of baleen for a project. That sounds expensive! Would corslett bones be wide enough ...

Jason Grimes

I just bought a 3 foot section of baleen last month for $40, so not too expensive. The natives here in Alaska are allowed to sell products from whaling. I think I have even seen whale blubber for sale once or twice before. I have been considering on making a pair of those gauntlets, but don't have e...

Jason Grimes

No I don't, sorry. I have read or heard about one instance of flag twirling, but I can't remember where I heard that. The only thing I could find is from "Landsknechte und Reislaufer" where Matthias Rogg quotes from period writings that Ã¢â‚¬Å“The FÃƒÂ¤hnrich is enclosed by our battalion since he al...

Jason Grimes

I'm sure that they were used in parade every now and then. The banners purpose was many fold, to strengthen the troops resolve, as an object of capture for the enemy, and most important to relay commands from the captain or Oberist to the troops. The man with the banner was called a Fahndrich or Ens...

Jason Grimes

Awesome helmet Stanislav!!

Very cool, I like.

Jason Grimes

This particular gorget was made for use with full pauldrons or spaulders. You might think of these as the precursors to munions. The trend started in the 1520's and you can see these kinds of gorgets on Maximillian style armour. I don't know why they added the munion plates, maybe for better protect...

Jason Grimes

Hi Cat, I took the liberty of taking the picture and adding where the leathers are and labeling what it what. [img]http://www.grimmarmoury.com/images/armour/gorwithshoulders_anno.JPG[/img] The gold colored areas are where the leathers are, you can see them for the back of the gorget in the picture a...

Jason Grimes

That looks almost exactly like a modern ring-clamp that jewlers use.

https://trorderonline.thomasregister.co ... rcl652.jpg

Jason Grimes

I have seen as few as one lame to as many as four lames. But by far the most popular that I have seen have been two or three lames. In general the higher the quality of the gorget the more lames it has. YMMV

Jason Grimes

So are those real rivets or are they stamped to look like rivets? Yes they are real, but they don't connect anything. They are just for decoration. Here is the backside of the third tasset I posted above. You can see the rivets peened over but not attaching anything, except the ones used for the bu...

Jason Grimes

17th century tassets?? Oh yah!! Lots and lots of them. They were usually hinged to the breastplate, the hinges riveted to the tasset and then connected to the breast with a post and sneck hook. Or they could be attached with straps and buckles. Here is an example of one that I found on the net. m Of...

Jason Grimes

Hi Mulcahy,

Here is a scan from Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at War" that shows some examples of the Celtic drape and clasp.

http://www.grimmarmoury.com/images/celtic_drape.jpg

Hope this helps.

Jason Grimes

My Grandfather spent about 10 years researching our family tree and one of my ancestors he found caught my fancy. His name was Veltin Grimm and a farmer from the Palentinate. They were Luthern and left Germany because of all the wars going on at the time. He and his son with their familys came over ...

Jason Grimes

Can anyome help me identify this Suit of Armour? The picture was copied from somewhere on the net (most likely here). I am comissioning this suit to be made but I would really like to find out it origins and exact "Time frame". Oh my!! Wow, that is some conglomeration. If all the pieces and parts a...

Jason Grimes

That is great!! I noticed that the skirt is made in the same way, are you going to make the skirt as well? Awesome job!!

Jason Grimes

I wouldn't buy it. YMMV

Jason Grimes

I got mine today. It looks great, all the ARS folks have done an awesome job on the putting this one together. I haven't had time yet to look through everything, it's a lot thicker then I was expecting.

I didn't get my copy of the Mail Research Journal though.

Was this sent out separately?

Jason Grimes

Gregory, you should purchase "Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance" from the MET book store. If I remember correctly it is around $30. I think it is worth the money and there are a whole bunch of "classical" armour examples in it. It's not just about Filippo Negroli, but covers many armourers fro...

Jason Grimes

I would like to be on your list please. How do you like your payments?

Jason Grimes

I guess that is a real good question. I have always considered kettle hats being made with spangen type construction and chapel-de-fers being of a one-piece raised construction. The spangen type construction may have died out in the 14th century, 1350's? But I have seen the one-piece type helmets us...

Jason Grimes

There are on the "gun sheilds" that Henry VIII had made in the early 16th century. The ones that I have seen have a square or rectangular hole right above the gun barrel that is covered with grating. Because the barrels of the gun pierced the sheild right in the center, the hole was the only way to ...

Jason Grimes

Hi Ahriman, Yes, the picture I sent you was probably of a splinted vambrace. They were munition armour, so they were probably not worn by someone of the rank of Captain (although it is possible they might have been). As far as the gauntlets the connect directly to the lower cannon of the vambrace, t...

Jason Grimes

Wow!! Thanks Hal,

I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on it and start hammering. I hope my skills are worthy of your kit.

Jason Grimes

I found a 15th century example from the Vienna City Museum. There are two lower cannons accociated with a Kastenbrust breast and back that have this feature. This suit has been dated c. 1450. Also from the pictures I have it looks like the Italian harness B-2 (Churburg ?) also has this feature. Ther...

Jason Grimes

The Gundestrup caldron depicts Celtic warriors wearing full-length sleeved mail shirts and knee-length mail trousers, I don't know if you would call it a hauberk though.

The caldron has been dated to the 1st century B.C.

Jason Grimes

Hi Doug,

They did this with some harnesses in the 16th century too. I can't remember any particular harness at this time, but I do remembering seeing that third rivet on several. Maybe on one of Henery VIII's harnesses. I think by this time it was pretty limited to just the high-end suits.

Jason Grimes

Kass Mcgann at Reconstructing History Patterns has some here:

http://reconstructinghistory.com/patterns/german.html

They are good for the latter part of your time frame. Going earlier is easy, just do less slashing and make the clothing a little more tight fitting and you could push it back to around 1500.

Jason Grimes

Yay!! Kastenbrust, my favorite style of armour, just cause it is so strange. You might want to narrow your time frame down a little. Like James said, lots and lots of change between those years. There were also some differences between nothern Germany, southern Germany, the low counties, etc. Robert...

Jason Grimes

I have to agree with Mike here. Many of the subtle shapes seen on original armour is a by-product of the technique used to make the armour. So a modern armourer who is using modern techniques has two hurdles to over come. The first is designing methods to make armour with modern tools. The second is...

Jason Grimes

I found it. It was published by Braun & Schneider and included in the book called "THE HISTORY OF COSTUME" in about 1861 to 1880.

You will find this particular image on plate 32.

http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/history.html

Jason Grimes

Sorry about that, I was agreeing with James B. You see armour covered with bases and Waffenroks all over in period German artwork in the 16th century. But I haven't seen this, that I can remember, with 15th century German artwork. Now there is an example in England of a funerary brass that depicts G...

Jason Grimes

It looks to me that this image came out of that famous costume book that was first published in the 1860's. I forget the name of it though. The guy on the left is wearing bases or a short skirt that was worn over the fauld. This is more of a 16th century practice though, you really don't see bases u...

Re: Can you identify this suit of Armour