The Armour Archive

Konstantin the Red

It'll work okay for straps. If you must make a belt from it, keep the belt narrow or else double it up and stitch it together. Cut the belt and strap stuff from the part of the hide near the spine; that's the densest, stiffest, sturdiest part of the leather. Use the hide near the belly or the legs f...

Konstantin the Red

Wolf, I disagree with that interpretation: those are suspension-band rivets that held in a suspension-strap system like a medieval take on the interior webbing straps of a US Army pot helmet. Very typical of barbutes, too. The helmet itself would have been hot-raised from either a flat circle of met...

Konstantin the Red

Wyrm, I am disappointed that you did not think to search on "Ashcraft/Baker" (which seems to be how they really spell it) -- it would have brought you here: http://www.ashcraftbaker.com/index.htm Scroll down and click "Basic Helmets." They've updated their product line, I see, but the "Sugarloafs" m...

Konstantin the Red

The essence to making a shoulder joint work is to attach it at a single point. It sounds to me like you are making either leather spaudlers, or a 14th-century shoulder joint for a leather arm (same thing, really, just not separate -- it's integral with the rerebrace). Where the shoulder armor attach...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by ArtemisGreen: ... i think i'd cut the rings using the modified bolt cutters, then put them in a separate machine that flattens many at once (using a big ram). I don't think you...

Konstantin the Red

Lach, I gather that's been tried -- and promptly abandoned. To roll-overlap links by hand in batches isn't hard at all: string the links on the final-size mandrel (usually 1/16" smaller in diameter than the initial mandrel) about twenty to thirty in a bunch, grab a nice thick board, say two feet of ...

Konstantin the Red

Use tagboard or manila folder to make up the pattern of the plate. You are going to end up with something in the league of Ashcraft-Baker's basic helmet. This is a perfectly workable design, simple and straightforward to do. To actually make it look like a barbute, rather than a sketchily barbute-li...

Konstantin the Red

Gentlemen, the company that makes shark mail, butchers' gloves, and other fine electro-welded SS e4:1 protective articles is Whiting & Davis. I understand their mail production machines (they have four or five) cost about US$350,000.00 apiece. I don't know who builds the things; maybe it's done in-h...

Konstantin the Red

Oh, my goodness. Maillecake!

Konstantin the Red

http://www.arador.com/discforums/index.php?act=ST&f=8&t=738&s=3b770275782851d9ed 75c52f56d643ad This thread has some tips on making camails, some of which are contributed by yours truly, particularly the one at the bottom of the thread. The line of your vervelles determines the shape of your camail...

Konstantin the Red

Beware, however, of most washers -- they tend to produce 70-pound byrnies because they are a lot thicker than needed for mail.

Konstantin the Red

That 9mm inner diameter is a touch big for that gauge of wire if you are doing butted. You'd be okay riveting. In butted, you'd get better strength from quarter-hard or half-hard wire in the 5-7mm ID range. We've seen historical examples of mail links with inner diameters between 3mm and 12mm. It mo...

Konstantin the Red

While good old Webster's 3rd New International unabridged dictionary gives them as synonyms, armor writers differentiate -- perhaps according to something they've researched, and not laid out for us consumers. They part them according to size, weight, and intent. The hauberk, they say, was of heavie...

Konstantin the Red

Better rework the link. The link as currently constituted is a search, and it yields a blank page.

Thanx in advance.

Konstantin the Red

"I unclog my nostrils in your direction! -- and then I shall fetch la vache."

If it weren't for The Holy Grail, the Society wouldn't have half of its traditional jokes.

Konstantin the Red

The chain over the elbow joint is simply neither here nor there as far as making the defense SCA legal: what's needed is the three-point rigid coverage of the bony processes of the elbow joint -- a deep, fanless cup, in short.

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"The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone..."

Konstantin the Red

What all these guys said; I especially like the trick of fitting the tabbed topcap internally. You are good at cutting and fitting metal, and you are well on the way to producing some real armourcake, Raymund, so keep it up! Tricks to help with making a rolled over solid edge: The first one is to ma...

Konstantin the Red

And in their usual form, better suited to metal 20 gauge and lighter. There is rumor of somebody trying to develop a version of it with a hydraulic motor powering the upper wheel for moosing thicker steel around, but I haven't heard of this thing getting anywhere beyond prototype yet.

Konstantin the Red

And at least centerpunch your hole before you drill it so your bit doesn't oscillate like this first effort did. It's also good to put a drop of oil on the centerpunch dimple before you start to drill: it helps to cool the drill bit, which helps keep it sharp, which helps keep it from these chatteri...

Konstantin the Red

Stay with the plain plywood, but perhaps your friend would prefer to use a Viking round shield that is two inches smaller diameter, and perhaps a lighter reinforcing ring on the back of the edge, either a narrower ring or a thinner layer of wood. ------------------ "The Minstrel Boy to the war is go...

Konstantin the Red

I'm getting a Cyrillic 404 File Not Found [lit.; "nonexisting page"] for Hayden's link, doubtless because it lacks its slashes. Edit that bad boy, please. Meanwhile, K1e1 has the complete link. And, just to round up: "Juan Santell, the Willing Pell..." is there more to that verse? It has a nice, rol...

Konstantin the Red

Meanwhile... The camail is built exactly like the shouldery parts of the coif, with the addition of two little triangles of mail rising to fill in at the temples. The exact size and shape of the triangles depends on the layout of the camail strap, on whether it slants upward to either temple from a ...

Konstantin the Red

I suspected that might be the case. Get Strunk & White anyway -- you can read it in little bites and still get the benefit. I see you are already trying, and I say WTG! Keep it up; it's already better!

Konstantin the Red

It's known to the Germans as "hammering on air:" you put your hammer hits not where the metal is resting on the anvil face, but right next to it. It's often best done with a soft-faced hammer like a weighted-rawhide mallet. Minimal marring, minimal planishing, and it curves metal very well. It may a...

Konstantin the Red

If it's silvery and has a faint metallic smell like when you put your face on a chainlink fence, it's galvanized wire. Very good at not rusting except perhaps on the cut ends. Maillers go on at some length about "galvy smell," which some find very objectionable and seems to be the result of some peo...

Konstantin the Red

Depends on your intended use -- a/k/a your "threat environment." Armor built for war was fairly light, until they started making "armor of proof" and bouncing pistol balls off it. Armor for sporting-goods use got designed more to protect you against a certain specific known threat than to let you ma...

Konstantin the Red

Hamish, either dish with a regular rawhide mallet until it's mushroomed and rounded, or make it into a rounded one with a new rasp.

Konstantin the Red

Your question's actually a multi-parter, as first we've got to establish whether by "pattern" you mean the mail weave, or the plan for what you'd care to make the mail into. Many maillers urge beginners to start rather small, as many maillers are teenagers who are not widely recognized as paragons o...

Konstantin the Red

Uh, gang, there is a practical use for nipple rings in these, er, anatomical breastplates: as anchor points for chains securing helms, sword hilts, baselards, roundel daggers...

Anybody trying for fourteenth-century kink?

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"The Minstrel Boy on his tongue hath trod..."

Konstantin the Red

Sean, I think we'd call that a modified frogmouth, one opened up to see better while still featuring grillwork across the sights. The helm would be good for sword melÃ©e with rebated weapons, while at the same time being thoroughly protective of the neck. Very much a tourney helm; sporting goods rat...

Konstantin the Red

Polarus, go ahead with the English sources -- England and Scotland imported the bulk of their high-end plate armor anyway. Much of it was German, but it got lively competition from the Italians too. Your period of interest is the heyday of the International/Camail-&-Jupon armours. British funerary b...

Konstantin the Red

You can get artificial sinew thread on spools either through Leather Factory, perhaps online leather dealers, or check with local beading shops -- they sell supplies to make beadwork and bead jewelry. They use artificial sinew to make the network of dreamcatchers with. The local beading place is whe...

Konstantin the Red

Dang; Artemis may be stuck with the "edge of the anvil plus cold chiseling" Third-Worldy kind of cutting for the next couple months. It's an extremely ragged cut that needs lots of bench grinder time to clean up.

Konstantin the Red

Whoa, the key word here was rent. See who rents out tools; they may even have more than one brand of electric power shear. Makita, for one, makes them, and they cost a few hundred dollars US to buy. And somebody around here just noted electric powershears on ebay. Here's the thread: http://www.armou...

Konstantin the Red

If you can't get to a buddy with a Beverly, see if you might rent a power shear. They say that while power shears are mostly only rated for 16 gauge, they will handle 14 if you take it slow.