The Armour Archive

Egfroth

Like the ones below? (They're called chausses - basically the French equivalent of the word hose - i.e. stockings. In fact if you're talking to someone French it gets confusing working out whether they mean "chausses" of fabric or of mail).

You can see them also at http://www.levantia.com.au/military/crusarmour.html

Egfroth

Alcy, I've never heard of this. Do you have a cite?

Egfroth

Nice page. A couple of things - though the best examples seem to come from the 6th and 7th centuries, polykandela (the plural of polykandelon) are still in use - I saw several in the Church of the Virgin Kapnikerea [of the lamplighters(!)] when I was in Athens. And there have been clips found which ...

Egfroth

Did he have a hook? And an eyepatch over his oculars?

Egfroth

Well, in fact, it's likely to be a conical spangenhelm. The only extant helmet we can say is a Viking" helmet (i.e. from both the right geographical region and the right chronological period) is the one found at Gjermundbu in Norway. But the rest of the evidence available suggests that this helmet i...

Egfroth

A ploykandelon, right? Like the one here . . .

Egfroth

Also if you can fit in the monasteryof Las Huelgas at Burgos you should do so, if only for the 12th century aristocratic clothing. Though I don't think there's any armour there.

Egfroth

I'd say the Sutton Hoo helmet (mid 7th century) is the latest to have anything like this shape. But it has a face plate. At least one of the Vendel/Valsgarde helmets from the same period has a nasal and cheekplates. But all of the helmets of this period are hemispherical. I'd stress that "somewhat v...

Egfroth

A nice impression. I agree the pants should be tighter fitting. Whether you need leg wraps as well, I don't know. Have a look at the Vendel period warriors on the pressblach at m - I'd recommend that when you get your new tunic you make the sleeves quite a bit tighter, if you can fit your arm protec...

Egfroth

Very pleased it went so well. I hope everything turns out for you. Despite all the problems you've been up against, you are very fortunate to have friends like that.

Oh, and don't forget that friendships don't just happen. These people hold you in high regard because of who and what you are.

Egfroth

The supposed prohibition on clergy spilling blood was discussed on the Mediev-L list some months ago, and the general consensus was that it was an assumption without much basis in fact.

Egfroth

Hmmm, at the moment we're both arguing from a rather vague position regarding the number and type of archaeological finds we cite. It would be good to get together a database of lamellar finds - location, approximate dating, number of plates in the find (with shape, size and number and location of h...

Egfroth

Thanks, Ernst! I've been looking for a source for that picture for years!

Egfroth

AJ, did you ever get that helmet? I'd be interested in seeing photos.

Egfroth

Well, I just tested my theory of knotting the cord at the top as it comes out of the plate - and it worked like a charm. Cut the lace and . . . nothing happens! The plate stays securely in place, held there by the knot on this plate and the one next door, with a tensioned lace running between the tw...

Egfroth

Well I think this is a case of half empty vs. half full. I contend that the lamellar plates that have been found are often so few in situ as to not number enough for full shirts, etc. Rather I suspect we have found caches of repair plates, extras, in other words to be used for damaged shirts. The o...

Egfroth

Beat it up first. And don't cut the sheet to shape till you've beaten it, either. The process of beating deforms the shape, and you want to have that all completed before you think of putting it in place. And you'll also have to flatten the sheet out again - the beating is likely to make it curve in...

Egfroth

Nice work. What did you base them on?

Are you with AAF in Canberra, or a loner? You might be able to ask them if they have access to suppliers of spring steel.

Egfroth

I'm in the same boat - perhaps not on the scale you've been helped, but our financial situation wasn't as desparate. The number of sincere good wishes and the amount of support and help since my wife died two weeks ago - from friends, family - and my fellow re-enactors and forumites - has been astou...

Egfroth

Sorry, I was assuming you were aware of where I was getting my ideas on the torso armour - Dr Tim Dawson's article reconstructing Byzantine lamellar, Kremasmata, kabadion, klibanion . As you can see from his diagrams, he proposes that the dot is one of two rivets holding the torso plate to the backi...

Egfroth

Aha! Just had a bright idea. It came from working out what exactly would happen if a lace got cut on the sleeve. Firstly, each plate on my reconstruction is supported at two places - if you look at my reconstruction diagram, there's a lace coming out of the hole and going down to the bottom. It goes...

Egfroth

I think those lines are all supposed to represent laces. Let's face it, we have plenty of examples of lamellar armour from all kinds of times and regions with laces exposed on the plates in this way. One problem we're up against is the method used to produce the image in the stone of the ikon. Given...

Egfroth

Can I* suggest you not go for a half-and-half (per fess) design on your shield? It seems to me to detract from the thing you want to see, which is the pretty pattern. Look at the colours available at the time - ochres in the main - yellow and various reds and white. I don't know about the Celts, but...

Egfroth

Here's a better picture of the ikon I'm basing the sleeves on. Make your own decisions regarding the likelihood of metal staples. It's certainly not beyond possibility, but I don't know of anything contemporary that would suggest they were used - apart from the fact that they would have been worked....

Egfroth

Good idea, Graedwyn. I wish I'd thought of it.

Egfroth

Turnshoes. That'll keep you busy for a while. And too few people wear them.

Maybe you can make stuff to sell?

Egfroth

Not at the moment. I think my next project has to be the skirt, but it won't be for a while. I haven't even made the second sleeve, yet, though I've finally summoned up the energy to get all the pieces out and look at them. That's a start, I suppose. I'm interested in your ideas about ridges and sta...

Egfroth

Yes, but monks and priests were not the same thing at all. A monk was a person who had taken vows and joined a community under a rule (usually Benedict's Rule, or a variation of it) involving sepration from the world, abstinence and poverty. The regular clergy were intimately involved with the commu...

Egfroth

Hi Matthew. I seem to have never replied to this thread, for which I apologise. If you want Varangian stuff, you're in with a select group. You could try typing in "Varangian" on the AA's search function. There are a lot of mentions there. In particular, m And then there's my own website - particula...

Egfroth

This one crops up every now and again. It seems to be based on wishful thinking, particularly from the Osprey people, that then got accepted far and wide (unfortunately) as "Varangian Armour".

See http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... =varangian

Egfroth

Well, most of the priests in the Bayeux Tapestry are shown in "civvies" - look at the little group of priests under the words PETRI APLI at the funeral of Edward the Confessor in the third panel at http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bayeux_tap ... 19_21.html

Egfroth

Here it is. If you have Arms and Armour of the Mediaeval Knight by Edge and Paddock, it's in there on p. 73 (a much better copy, by the way!). IIRC it's late 14th century. There's someone who makes a "copy" of this helmet, but I have no idea how accurate or fightworthy it is. I can say, however, tha...

Egfroth

If you mean a kettle hat with a pointy top, yes. Late 14th century - quite a few here.

I also have a late C14 picture from Italy with a nice pointy kettle hat, which I can scan if you're interested.

Egfroth

Ok, yes. This isn't a Viking helmet per se . It's mainly based on the Gjermundbu helmet I mentioned earlier in this thread, but with additions from other sources - specifically the "tail" (Sutton Hoo, I guess, or perhaps a late Roman cavalry helmet) and the cheek-guards (sort of Migration period sty...

Egfroth

And they used to build their longships of oak IIRC. So it can't have been that rare . . .