The Armour Archive

wcallen

Just a comment that doesn't matter.

That is a really nice breastplate. It is certainly a high-end version of itself and James is probably right in attribution.

I like its form. Just what it should be.

Maybe someday I will get back to Munich and will be able to see it.

Wade

wcallen

I would really like someday to get one with a spring. Otto is right. Basically a small "V" spring like the one on the outside of a flintlock that holds the frizzen in place. I don't think I have it 100% worked out, but on 16th c. ones it seems that the ones where there is a slot and the gu...

wcallen

Admiral worked out for me too.

"Small" quantities seems to work fine - I did about 800 pounds and they were cool. As I remember (unless it changed) the smallest reasonable price break was at 200 pounds per gauge.

Wade

wcallen

Oh, come on. Adding that band down the middle just makes the whole thing so much harder and almost no one will appreciate the work you did to do it. So why not add it? People have played with several of them. He was one of them. I usually find that I forget things over time. If you need something ju...

wcallen

I have seen 16th c. breastplates (Italian) that don't have slots too. They may flex or they may just sort of sit there. They are pretty permanent feeling on the ones I have played with. I own a couple. Blair described the 15th c. gussets he played with as 'fixed' as opposed to 'sliding' so he certai...

wcallen

I don't think I saw any B&W in jamestown, but go for it. Slightly out of date, lower quality? perfect for Jamestown. A cheap 2 piece morion should be perfect. I would keep it simple and generic - something like this one: m Then toss in a breastplate like this: m If you want it to be B&W I wo...

wcallen

I read the question a little differently. Not - when did new stuff come in. But - if I already have stuff, how long do I wait to replace it with the new stuff? I don't think that there is going to be a good answer. You would have to find household records detailed enough to not only tell you when th...

wcallen

Thanks Thorbrandr. I would have shared my books, but they are a bit far away. I am happy to share with people within reasonable distance, just like the armour. Books and any other sources for images of authentic pieces are good. The more the better. I find that looking at original pieces and images ...

wcallen

Just a slight derail from the main topic, then we can go back. Maybe you were in a different part of the Middle. I really rarely saw one hand thrusting tips and when I did they didn't really do much. I didn't fight all over the kingdom, I tended to be limited to Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan incl...

wcallen

I have seen other pieces dated to very early in the 17th c. I see lots and lots of the morions dated to 1600 (pretty close to the 17th c.). I have a nice breast and back from 1590 that are very definitely B&W. I don't think that 1600 was as magic in the real world as it appears to be when we are...

wcallen

Pitbull, You say you are 'doing a large one like on the Avant harness' - are you trying to make an elbow like this or are you trying to make a reinforce for the elbow like the Avant harness? They are somewhat different. Construction advice would be different. For example - the reinforce does not hav...

wcallen

Wander down to NC and play with the bits in person.... It really is nice to just play with some of the original pieces. There are some pretty subtle shapes that are fun to inspect and argue about in person. I have been adding pieces recently and it has been a while since the last study session. I wi...

wcallen

The pattern that was posted was probably ours (Aaron's and mine from the dark ages of armouring in the 80's). It re-appears every so often. Basically 'Y' where you an vary the pointiness of the cop by the angle of the 'Y'. Thaden probably did some that way too since it is the right way to do it. I w...

wcallen

Depends on the goal here. Will it work? Sure. Looking at the cheap ones I have made and some real ones in the Royal Armouries and Vienna..... Too flaired. Almost everywhere. All of these things are a little subtle, but the general idea seems to be that the profile of the flair at the side is pretty ...

wcallen

I was talking about the same thing but from a totally different direction with Count Valerius (currently Northshield) a few weeks ago. We both go back to some pretty old-school styles. I was last really active in the Middle Kingdom in the early-mid 80's. He has stayed more active over the years and ...

wcallen

Just my opinion, but with boffers there is no need for knee/elbow armour. The boffers do that for you. My kid and I have destroyed several boffers over the years - he hits hard - wth no real harm done at all. Mainly some stinging when a good wail happens. We didn't use any armour at all. We used bof...

wcallen

Honestly? If that is what the breastplate looks like, keep it the way it is. Spend some time looking at real armour. There is lots of it out there in museums, books and the web. Don't look at modern pieces, look at the real thing. Decide what you like. Make/have made a new breastplate that matches t...

wcallen

I know I am not a woman, but I do have one in the house. Yes, women have squishy bits that at least mostly conform to the shape in which they are placed. Sports bras certainly affect the shape. I personally think that the most reasonable armour type for a woman (esp. one with some curves) is a solid...

wcallen

Honestly there will be a lot of answers to your question(s) which depend on what your breast and back actually look like and how authentic you want to be. Building tassets is normally no big deal if you want simple 15th c. one piece tassets. Building a fauld isn't all that hard, but you have to know...

wcallen

This is from a few years ago and was posted separately, but the shield was a little fun. Curved 2 layers of plywood. glued linen cover with gesso and paint with a glued leather back cover and enarmes and guige. The arms were taken from the city of Nuremberg. I am sure it wouldn't hold up to SCA comb...

wcallen

the stock pavillion at Jara if it smeeld better and had some heavy bags and i could go use it anytime i wanted instead of not being able to go at all Actually, that was my first thought - I was there for school for 2 years and it was a really cool site. Big enough for archery followed by heavy figh...

wcallen

Lacing it to the underlying garment seems to be as close as you can get to correct. That said, Aaron and I have both worn elbows directly over the gambeson sleave without attaching it to anything. The one I have includes a glued in pad (probably helps keep it from slipping) and a strap around the in...

wcallen

I would expect that the real answer will depend on specific details of the mail concerned. Much of the modern riveted mail is really pretty unlike the real stuff. The overlaps are much cruder and sharper and the flat stuff is much flatter than most of the real stuff I play with. That means that the ...

wcallen

Really we are messing around in a range of differences that doesn't matter to most people. Polish/treatment matter the most. Buffed rusts less than matte finish - but you care more when it does rust. Sitting in sweat is bad. Sitting in water is bad. Playing with it is bad. Buffing it, then waxing (o...

wcallen

As you can tell from the random answers: Alloy matters. Some 'springs' are more 'stainless' than others. My personal experience implies that 1050 will rust a little less than normal mild, but you just had the opposite stated. Basically non-stainless will rust. Be careful, use oil/wax/something to ke...

wcallen

Swete - there is more .... that is the modern stuff. Come by and say hi sometime. I will put together another "Study Day" sometime. I just need to find a time that works for us and for other people. Back to the topic - others have to have pictures of cool rooms. No one has a room in their ...

wcallen

This isn't fun without pictures. Anyone willing to share other than the boat? This isn't strictly an "SCA room" but it is part of one wall of one room in the house that is similar: <a href="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/DownstairsEndWallNew.jpg"> <img src="http://www.allenantiques.co...

wcallen

I was looking at these legs from Churburg: http://www.mallet-argent.com/images/legs_from_churburg_CH_S12_c1365-70_2.jpg , and I noriced something. On the outside of the right leg, you can see a rivet-and-slit for securing a strap. And on the inside of the other leg, you can see a row of 5 rivets, a...

wcallen

I use her belts (good belts, good prices, good service). I have ended up with various grits over the years and somehow I got some smoother ones. I don't use them anyway. Generally just use the coarser up to about 120 and then move over to setup wheels - cotton buffs with abrasive glued to them (seve...

wcallen

If you care, another alternative is "german silver" - a copper alloy with nickle that is very silver like when polished and dulls out sort of like pewter. My normal waist belt - worn every day to work - is made from it with no signs of anything funny in a few years. I don't know who casts ...

wcallen

How do I think they made the edges thinner? Anything is just a guess, but I personally feel that this kind of piece would have been made from a relatively (compared to what we tend to use) thick piece of material where the form is knocked into the piece through whacking from the inside against an an...

wcallen

"is the metal flanged in..." Nope. It is beveled. What you are seeing is the thickness of the material. They did this a lot on a lot of plates. The edge is (many times) beveled which often gives the appearance that the material is thicker than it is. Many of my pieces, even not so nice one...

wcallen

1. There is a huge difference between 'shapeless' and 'nearly shapeless'. The difference matters a lot to us since we start with clean flat sheet. I don't think it mattered as much to them since they would have started from sheet-esque stuff but probably not in any way clean. So all of the metal mig...

wcallen

There is one on Historic Enterprises' site. That is probably where most people get theirs. I made one. It included a stiff padded strip that helps hold the neck up. m It did a nice enough job of filling in the gap above the breastplate. m From memory, it was a straight strip of mail with 2 pieces be...

wcallen

The cloth is modern tape glued into the finger to try to keep the old leather from falling all the way apart. It is in no way part of the original construction. Back when we did 14th c. gauntlets we would put felt in between the finger leathers and the glove. It seemed to add some comfort. I have no...

Re: Did cuissies wrap plates ever go on the inside of the le