The Armour Archive

Konstantin the Red

Edric, a cordovan-colored belt wouldn't give you any problems with anyone. If you wish to get double-redundant, give it a generous application of neatsfoot oil before you put the leather sealer on -- it will darken the belt. Oil by itself will turn undyed vegetable-tanned a quite dark brown. -------...

Konstantin the Red

Aw c'mon, Cailean, clearly it was the vorpal sword doing the snacking!

Konstantin the Red

If you add vertical strips front and back, consider making the back strip wider than the front strip. To freely swing your arms to the limit of their forward and across swing, you need enough material in the back. This is especially true of a close-fitting shirt. ------------------ "The Minstrel Boy...

Konstantin the Red

Heh, that's rather a pity, Blak; p.169 of AAotMK has just the butt-shot you're looking for.

Konstantin the Red

Vogel, not in base-10, no. The SystÃ¨me Internationale (SI) is sticking with base-60 for time measurements, basing all things on the standard second and working up from there. Why this Babylonian base-60 scheme? I'm not sure; perhaps because it's got many divisors. We measure time and we measure arc...

Konstantin the Red

Oh, you're Justinus! Okay, hi! I haven't said a lot on Rawmetal recently, but I read everything that comes my way -- I notice I talked on Rawmetal a good deal more before I started reading here and on Arador Armour Library. This is a darn good place to hang out and learn. It's definitely elevated my...

Konstantin the Red

The short answer is, use anything you have that can reach the rivet in question: an anvil horn, a ball stake, a hunk of bar stock fixed in a vise. Perhaps the best tool for the job is called a T stake or a rivet setter. It is sometimes a stake and sometimes a stand-alone tool welded up out of heavy ...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Neeva: The biggest thing I am worried about is weight. I can't afford any Fourth Armoury stuff yet, so I have to make it myself... Any advice out there?<HR></BLOC...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Evanr: i made a shirt using the 45 degree method...im not sure if i did it wrong but if you try to raise your arm above your head you must lift the whole shirt.... i plan on...

Konstantin the Red

Since the board seems to have some nannyware that evanesced my first try at this, I'll try posting again:

That early bascinet with the misapplied camail bears a startling resemblance to a polished steel glans, complete with a ferrous prepuce.

Konstantin the Red

Well, ladies and gentlemen, now we know what a brass-bordered polished steel glans penis looks like -- with a ferrous foreskin attached.

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

Konstantin the Red

Sounds like it's time to start searching on "Art/miniatures/illuminations/England/14th century" and suchlike terms and variations on terms. A late 14th-c. illo I spent a good while looking at a few months back while copy-drawing three of its figures depicted a very Plantagenet-looking King Arthur an...

Konstantin the Red

Well, Sir Oswald, since greathelms not uncommonly went on over early bascinets...

Konstantin the Red

Appolonia, the expensive solution is an advanced form of the great bascinet -- it would be getting rather long in the tooth by the last quarter of the 15th century, but not implausible. The type is very protective of the neck without needing to contact it. Its big minus is you have zero head turn --...

Konstantin the Red

For Ulstead's ".02%" please read ".2%." Carbon steel runs from mild steel's approx .18% to a max of about 1.25% C for very high-carbon steel indeed. In the trade, it's referred to as "points of carbon," 100 points being 1 percent. Mild or low-carbon steel starts at about 18 points, medium-carbon run...

Konstantin the Red

Would St. Sebastian do?

Konstantin the Red

Woodward's Treatise on Heraldry British and Foreign has the entry "Gimmel-ring -- two annulets interlaced" rather than three annulets, which might better come under the head of "triquetra," or perhaps "three annulets interlaced" which should yield your trio. My hardcopy of Parker yields "Gimbal ring...

Konstantin the Red

Pick up a set of needle files -- various shapes, very fine teeth, can handle steel but usually get employed on softer metals that are getting trimmed to final, decorative shape. Needle files or Swiss files can handle anything you are ever likely to do in precise detailed shaping. ------------------ ...

Konstantin the Red

Sweet deal, Bex, though my deal beats yours -- a 72-lb ex USFS farriers' anvil for free, because my dad picked it up for free/surplus. All it's ever cost me was shipping from Colorado to Maryland, back in the day. From the pointy part to the holes in the back, you've got the horn for curving stock o...

Konstantin the Red

Mykaru, Totenkampf would mean "deathbattle." I fear our speculation here is gone offcenter. I can't even make out what it is we are groping for (except for the general idea that we want a name for this early helm).

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by David Blackmane: Do you need to round the face of the rawhide hammer or just start dishing? Does the action of dishing round the face? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you ar...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by David Blackmane: How about these hammers from Eastwood? [img]http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/images/P784.jpg[/img] Would they be heavy enough to move 14g? <HR></BL...

Konstantin the Red

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Aidan Cambel: I understand that about the kites, but more specifically - was were the predominant shapes in 1289-1305? Still mostly kite shaped? more heater shaped? star of ...

Konstantin the Red

Another idea, and not too expensive, I think: get one of those small, cast-iron hand dumbbells such as are used in weight rooms, the kind with smoothly rounded ends, of three kilos or more mass. Bang the rounded end down onto your metal to dish it. Rather like hitting the metal with a big smooth roc...

Konstantin the Red

Ioxuminous, the ruler on that pic is in inches, so multiply the figure by 2.54 for cm. That hammer head is about 18 cm long. Another possibility is to find a large metal hammer, used, so you can get it cheaply. Then grind its face so it is rounder. Such hammers would be for the larger-radius bends a...

Konstantin the Red

Ring is all right, but does it give a vigorous high bounce? A good bounce saves you from exhaustion and wrecked wrists.

Konstantin the Red

Arland, you'd be better off using light flat stock to make reinforcing ribs by that welding technique. Same effect. A good weld will show some on the exterior of the piece, so be prepared to do a bit of sand and polish. I've got a couple of spun tops reinforced that way, with ribs of 1/16" flat stoc...

Konstantin the Red

Pot-helm. Or just plain Helm. This thing isn't big enough or protective enough to be called "great."

It's an extended version of a spaced-armor "hat" that was contemporaneously popular in this era.

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

Konstantin the Red

Gordon, it's maille. Nothing but, unless you want just to use a stout, knee-length pourpoint. Ringmail's bogus, ignore the stuff. Now, to try and overcome the problems you are struggling with: how bad is this attention-span thing? Do you just get bored after half an hour of singing "I've been workin...

Konstantin the Red

Aidan, the short answer is kites evolving into heaters, getting shorter and shorter, and getting flatter across the top.

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

Konstantin the Red

And Dragon A## Armoury probably wouldn't bring you business, anyway.

"The Dragon And His Tail Armoury" would have aviation-history buffs scratching their heads and wondering what, if anything, a particularly ornate B-24 has to do with body armor. Surely another non-starter.

Konstantin the Red

This thread off the FireStryker LH board may be useful:

http://www.wolfeargent.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000104

Konstantin the Red

Rainald has a good point. However, there is also that piece of altarpiece art that we suspect was painted in the 15th century, from then-extant 14th-c. artifacts, to wit, a pigface bascinet and a knee-length gambeson, which had the quilting arranged as a very attractive "spray" of curved lines risin...

Konstantin the Red

J.P., five 300-lb trips home in the trunk of your car?

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

Konstantin the Red

And this is the specific thread I had in mind, with the relevant post by our ever-helpful Chef de Chambre, and a more detailed expatiation by Hauptmann a couple posts further down: http://www.wolfeargent.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000104 [This message has been edited by Konstanti...