The Armour Archive

wcallen

James is more clear in a point I was a little subtle about. We do need to remember that what we have is almost always lighter and thinner than it would have started out. Anything that has undergone a good German cleaning every so often over 500 years will be a good deal lighter than it was when it s...

wcallen

If it matters to anyone, the final, post cleaning, after 500 years thickness of my greaves seem generally to be .030-040, with spots that thicken up toward .050, but they aren't very large. If I had lots of choices, i would probably start around .045, if I wanted to end up there, but that probably i...

wcallen

Thanks guys - I'll provide some pics in the next couple of days. Wade, the 124 does NOT have construction holes - if you could provide a link to greaves that do have construction holes (or take a couple of pictures) it would be appreciated. Actually, it does. Look really closely at the metal near t...

wcallen

Keep looking around. You will find more signs of temporary rivet holes that aren't used for anything useful in the final piece. Gorgets are a wonderful example. Lower lames of 16th c. Italian style pauldrons, there too. Lots of places on the cool Augsburg pauldrons. Multi-plate tassets. As I remembe...

wcallen

I don't know why they decided that they wanted the extra fine cuff on these sleeves, they don't seem to have needed them on all mail sleeves. But once we go with the fine cuff, the tighter weave would bend around the wrist (a narrow thing, tight bend) better the way they put the weave than it would ...

wcallen

I tried to make more details of those mail sleeves with the nice cuffs available (by buying the sleeves) today, but it wasn't to be. Someone else in the world was willing to spend a lot more on them than I was. Maybe someday I will find another interesting example of mail to buy. Just not today. May...

wcallen

Back in the 80's Aaron and I (with help at various times from other people, some quite extensive) built armour for a "living". Looking at an inflation calculator for the U.S. That would have been about $45/hour. I don't think we ever came close to that. ...and for some reason, I though I should cha...

wcallen

Back in the 80's Aaron and I (with help at various times from other people, some quite extensive) built armour for a "living". Looking at an inflation calculator for the U.S. That would have been about $45/hour. I don't think we ever came close to that. We never did the math this carefully either. B...

wcallen

yes, you will likely want some more dish. That plate is taller than we usually make them. A smaller plate is easier to dish. Just in case you care. This one is a lot later, and its top plate is made from 2 plates, but the idea is the same. http://www.allenantiques.com/A-147.html And this is a simple...

wcallen

Tassets... I expect you have them (straps are there) it would look so much nicer with them on. The clothing helps a lot with the overall look. I wonder what could be done to make the arms/gauntlets look better... Elbow gauntlets would go great with that look, but I expect that the movement wouldn't ...

wcallen

How thick is thick enough depends on to many variables to have a single answer. This is an original spaulder cap plate: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-56.html It includes some final thickness measurements. Generally the lames below wouldn't be any thicker, and you will have to work the top cap plate...

wcallen

Both James and Mac have made something pretty similar. Go to the bottom of this page and you will see the black armour he made for Toby with a similar helmet: http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=27244&view=next He might have the patterns lying around, but as Sean said, a pattern really dep...

wcallen

As you dish, curve will come naturally. Depending on how evenly you dish, the curve will be relatively even, or all wonky. Either way, you aren't really "trying" to curl it up, but it happens. You are trying to get the volume curl is a nice side effect. You can use any hammer you want to do the dish...

wcallen

At some point we may move on to first projects that are a little more based in actual pieces that existed in the past, but this basic spaulder is often considered a good starter project. Why? Not because it is trivial to do, instead it is a good starter because it includes several things you will ne...

wcallen

Mac wrote:I think you'll want a bit more angle between that paper lame and the one you have in steel already.

Mac

Mac is right. I would be a little stronger and leave one or the other of the qualifiers out. More angle.

Wade

wcallen

Interesting! One GIANT main plate on that one, with no upper lames. And if I understand correctly, the way the lower lames are attached (with leathers) is more typical of how these things were assembled? I can't prove it, but I think we have a little "danger Will Robinson" if you are thinking about...

wcallen

As more and more of the Ex. Dean stuff has started wandering onto the market, more and more oddities of "restoration" are showing up. I think that the main plate of the right pauldron is almost certainly right (no statement on the decoration though). I don't personally see any reason the upper plate...

wcallen

When I cared, I just built a normal 3 piece Italian 15th c. gauntlet, but I made the cuff come off of the back of the hand straight. That let my hand sit next to the shield, but left me with a gauntlet that looked like a gauntlet. Talbot's pattern (with an adaptation for the cuff) would probably wor...

wcallen

Normally these guys are an auction house. Normally they are pretty reasonable when doing that part of their job. They send me extra pictures of lots, let me bid by phone so I can play more.... But shipping is sort of the sore spot. It seems to be common (at least) to all of the auction houses. Wade

wcallen

Use what you have. When you find that it isn't right, buy the piece you need. I own a rosebud. I haven't used it a couple of decades. It uses to much gas, and a big welding tip usually gets me as big a heat as I can reasonably use anyway.... well, I do want to do some power hammer work, but the rose...

wcallen

I keep pestering them and I can't get anything better either. I placed a single order along with some more pestering (just in case something comes out of it).

Wade

wcallen

I must disagree with a few of the characterizations of B-2 (and the Avant armour is similar in these aspects). That is not a German style arm. That is an Italian arm typical of the period. It is a "normal" articulated elbow on the left which has an additional reinforce over top of it. The reinforce ...

wcallen

The holes generally match relatively closely. If your geometry isn't right, you can cheat a lot with over-sized holes, but I wouldn't start there. Usually people pien articulation rivets pretty hard, like other rivets and the result is less than spectacular. That leads to oversizing holes. Mac (he c...

wcallen

We go over rivet sizes every so often. As Mac says, with few exceptions (like helmet visor pivots) 1/8" is the right size. Really for almost everything else. Hinge rivets, pivot rivets for articulations, lining rivets.... lots of things. Varying head sizes are used at different times, but the shank ...

wcallen

We will see if the original poster cares anymore, a lot more activity from everyone else over the last couple of days. A perspective from another (mostly) outsider. I was pretty active in the SCA in the late 70's and mid 80's in the Middle Kingdom. I attended most of the big events and about 6 Pensi...

wcallen

I don't (functionally) have an internet connected phone either. It is probably capable of it, but I don't want to play that game. I put pictures (much larger that anyone really wants to store for everyone) on my site. No adds, no one else "owning" them or trying to directly monetize them, and then l...

wcallen

Narrow things down a little bit. They can vary a good deal. To pick the worst examples, very early 15th c. Italian will be long for use with an hourglass style cuff. Very late 15th c. German can be very short for use with a "gothic" gauntlet.

Wade

wcallen

Some repeat/reinforcing. I have a Pexto stake plate. It doesn't work for most of my stakes. I use a custom made simple one for most of them. My really big stakes use a wooden stand. Certainly works for the last 10 years, and it can be an easy to make temporary one if you decide you want to move up. ...

wcallen

It is called a bending fork. Usually used by blacksmiths with shorter tines, but the idea is the same. How to lay out the shop will depend a lot on what you want to do and the tools you have to use to do it. I know someone who has almost every conceivable tool in a tiny space. I know others with lot...

wcallen

His name is Aaron Toman. I could include his other names, but no one knows them anyway. That would have been around the time we worked together - mostly 1978-1987. BoTH took me a while - Best of the Hammer. A compilation of articles from "The Hammer" - the journal of the Middle Kingdom Armourer's gu...

wcallen

I expect when people went through the place for each of the sales they weren't terribly careful. These definitely should have been together, they have the same inventory number, but we all know how things in storage can get messed up over the years. I am guessing that they had put one tasset somewhe...

wcallen

Yup. An interesting assortment of things. It is interesting to see how little of some of the suits really are old. There is a nice example of how quickly the sales are put together. Previously I bought a single tasset. Now in this sale, the mate is up for sale. I guess things were confused enough th...

wcallen

Wcallen, do you think my lames have too much compound curve in them? We will see how the final result turns out and how they flow into the rest of the plates. At this point I would say that they will probably turn out ok, but don't go any farther. There really are different styles of lames and cops...

wcallen

I would be careful with the amount you dish arm lames to try to remove the "gap". A very light dish eliminates the nasty shear recurve and makes the lames look less industrial. But it appears to me that the goal of "fitting" throughout the movement just wasn't a general goal for arms. These images a...

wcallen

We keep answering specific questions. I think looking at some real stuff of the style that seems to be the inspiration might be a good starting point. For a really quick overall: http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_gothic_armour.html Shows both the Italian and German form of "gothic" armour. And a pret...

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