The Armour Archive

Konstantin the Red

And there is still a heck of a lot you can do to give yourself a hard shell in covered plastic -- once you equip yourself with some oven mitts, a heat gun, and a razor knife. Stanley makes those, and power-tool companies make heat guns, which are usually used for drying paint and forming plastics. I...

Konstantin the Red

Good point, thanks, Lostie.

Konstantin the Red

Also bear in mind that, wire thickness and link diameter being equal, brass will weigh more.

Wanna think light gauge wire and riveting?

Konstantin the Red

From my mouth, en franÃ§ais, the n in quillon gets some pronunciation, not vanishing entirely in elision, but it is way weaker than the vowel preceding it, and the whole syllable gets strongly nasalized, in the "An American In Paris" sort of pronunciation students in our country usually achieve -- w...

Konstantin the Red

Ah, VermiculiteËœ, thank you! That had really gotten under my skin.

Konstantin the Red

Hey, if you're getting hair... you're old enough for boobs. Maybe not experienced enough to get any of 'em yet, but definitely old enough...

Konstantin the Red

And with all that, unless speaking French, sallet and gorget should be pronounced as in English, not pseudo-Frenchified. I should think you'd be well understood if in English you rendered vervelle "verr-vell." After all, has that not been an English word since the fourteenth century? Plenty of time ...

Konstantin the Red

See if you can also round up Ian Bain's book on constructing Celtic interlace. He's George's son, and I like his method for constructing interlace from the outside margin better: you know where the edges are, instead of guessing. The examples I've seen of interlace from DÃ¼rer aren't Celtic in style...

Konstantin the Red

I know, I know... further, I suspect Lostie would have no problem at all with writing Spanish, or Italian, or Russian, or Turkish -- you see, his phonetic spelling is really quite dead-on -- in that way. That does not spell dyslexia to me. What it tells me is that no one *ever* rehearsed Lostone in ...

Konstantin the Red

Spears in that time, for northwestern Europe (which I assume is your intended area) seem to have been pretty generic, unremarkable objects of two basic types: socketed, plain point and a head with the addition of two lugs or wings well down on the socket. Both have symmetrical points, not especially...

Konstantin the Red

Horsemen's armor had no coverage of the buttocks and inside the thighs, for the sake of sitting the horse. While these and the groin were pretty well covered so long as he was in the saddle, an armored man would be rather vulnerable there were he unhorsed. The neck is another area that is, well, dem...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by losthelm: I think it started with a ver but cant be definite. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Lostie, could you clear this up? I've been staring at this sentence for two days and have...

Konstantin the Red

(Sigh), guess I'll have to see if I remembered the word right...

Konstantin the Red

1018 is mild steel. 1050 is hardenable, medium carbon steel, hardenable by water or oil quench. A lot of people like oil quench, as it's less likely to warp a piece. 1050 also work-hardens thoroughly enough that some just go for work-hardening and never mind anything red-hot and quenched in the tub....

Konstantin the Red

Ty, set-in sleeves fit into an armhole that is cut in a curve rather than just straight. It's the way shirt sleeves and jacket sleeves are attached to their garments. A set-on sleeve is just attached to a straight cut armhole, or a straight selvedge. It's the basic T-tunic attachment, and it doesn't...

Konstantin the Red

Exactly correct, Stud: mid 13th century.

Konstantin the Red

Hmm... Kirk Douglas... The Norseman?

That movie brought us the two-decker Viking longship, as I recall.

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

Konstantin the Red

Ah yes, the Ferriferous Foreskin returns!

Konstantin the Red

8 inch/150mm bolt cutters. They can shear a screw 1/8 inch thick, and they will make very short work of your 16 gauge wire. Insist upon cutters whose jaws meet without showing light between them, at least at the ends, if not all the way down to the throat -- cutters that come out this way work best ...

Konstantin the Red

For "octagonal" we should read "hexagonal."

Konstantin the Red

I think it's that barrels and greats have an impenetrable, pillboxy, ominous, indeed sinister look.

I just wish the things breathed better; I've not had much luck in that direction. Too "close" a barrelhelm quite restricts airflow.

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

Konstantin the Red

Christopher, is 3/8" your initial link diameter or final link diameter? I make my 3/8" links by starting on a 7/16" mandrel, and shrinking and overlapping down to 3/8". Something else you will like on your hand crank mandrel: wind a short coil of wire as long as the handle part of the crank, and put...

Konstantin the Red

It's a wooden pin. Hardwood doweling, I'd say. Search up pics of Purpleheart and look at their products.

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Joe P: Thanks a lot! They are perfect, i really appreciate the links. Has anyone made a shield, without the rubber hosing around the edge and used steel for the edges instead? ...

Konstantin the Red

Commercial makers like Purpleheart make the crossguards in two halves longitudinally and pin the halves on around the waster. I think the waster is shallowly notched there to take the cross, and the cross fills the notch up completely and is well glued in to make it as much like a solid block of woo...

Konstantin the Red

That armour is indeed pictured there, and it is guessed that Galiot de Genouilhac received it from Henry VIII as a gift, and that the armour had been Henry's own before Galiot got it.

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

Konstantin the Red

That's going to be a job for leather shears, an edge beveler suited to the leather's thickness, an edge slicker (preferably the combination round end and bone folder type, nowadays made entirely of nylon), and beeswax. I used to be pretty thrilled with my leather shears until I met up with the Cutco...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Bohamand:
4) Yes but with a limited amout of flutting.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Uh, oh... "flutting" again!

Konstantin the Red

That's a little too elaborate and precisely heraldic for a Norman kite -- if you are designing this exhibit for something from the 1060s to the 1160s, you should probably take your inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry -- curvy bands of color that look like they had their inspiration from decorating ...

Konstantin the Red

You'll want to get a final curve depth of three to four inches. He won't need any more to give him the improved coverage a curved shield yields, and that depth of curve will give him the improved balance desired. One thing you can do is make up jigs or ribs cut from plywood, five to six inches deep ...

Konstantin the Red

Are you considering mail voiders for fifteenth century, voiders plus fauld for late fourteenth? Smaller, less expense, less trouble all round.

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

Konstantin the Red

I'm with Christopher here; also, eyeball every 1380-1403 funeral brass you can lay eyes on that features a camailed bascinet, and take an eyeball guess on the width of every camail strap/band you come across. They clearly didn't go overboard making the things elaborately cut; they were more inclined...

Konstantin the Red

Just make one larger rectangle, close it into a tube, and attach two tall skinny rectangles a handsbreadth wide for shoulder straps. Since the sleeveless format is generally called a byrnie, perhaps you ought to speak of it as that; a hauberk is knee-length, and has sleeves anywhere from half sleeve...

Konstantin the Red

I use an aluminum shield of 6061 alloy, T-6 temper, so it's stiff stuff. I think it may be the sort of thing that was once called "duraluminum." It's about 3.2mm thick, and is faced with leather. Someday I will cover the back with cloth. With the leather front, it's about what wood would weigh. In s...

Konstantin the Red

Azommin, perhaps you should try rephrasing your post for more clarity -- and what is that ASCII diagram supposed to be of, anyway? Wear cloth under mail -- leather will make you sweat about to death as you exert yourself carrying the mail about. Do you mean a mail shirt that incorporates small plate...