The Armour Archive

wcallen

Original leather is hard to find. There isn't a lot of it that survives. That said, the pieces I have reason to believe are original and pictures seem to indicate that they shouldn't extend past the plates - at least not much at all. No, I don't have any 14th c. finger lames. There aren't many that ...

wcallen

Your new fingers are a lot more like these: m These are much later than you are doing, but the idea is the same. Zoom in you can see the remains of the stitching that held them to the gloves. The left 2 are pretty clean (not re-assembled). The later ones (16th c. at least) have the cute finger nail ...

wcallen

Coppergate helmet. It was found in the bottom of a pit after they thought they had hit undisturbed earth so it was hit by a bulldozer which dug it out of the ground. When they pulled it up one plate was ripped off and the cheek plates and mail were shoved up inside the helmet. You can see a picture ...

wcallen

Through the years I have heard a combination of "real armour was heavy" and "real armour was lighter than we think" which are almost (but not quite) opposites. I generally play with things that are later than the subject of discussion, but I have one tidbit to offer from personal...

wcallen

I don't know what he is using, but I tend to use the horn of a bickhorn or a pipe stake. Some people have nice 'waisted' stakes, I don't have one so I just do it in air as was mentioned. I think that the rough forming of things like this is some of the most fun work there is - you get to move the ma...

wcallen

Shots from funny angles are always so hard to find in most books. I like them, so I take them and share them. If someone is actually trying to make a piece and another angle of one of my pieces would help, just ask. I have done custom pictures before and I will do them again. If you are wandering by...

wcallen

yes, this is an antique we are talking about. There is no way I would ever do anything actually permanent to such a thing. Adding a fauld would be harmless - pop 2 rivets and you are back where you started. Mig? Nope. I could do a copy... flutes are such a pain though. I can do them, I have done the...

wcallen

I don't play over there. Looks mainly sword/weapon oriented. I play more in the armour world. Thanks for the comment. Max in any form is kind of hard to get. With the gussets and waist lame, harder. More than this, really, really hard. This one is relatively early, simple and calm in form. A good ex...

wcallen

If history is any indication I will leave it alone. It may sound odd, but I come from an armourer background, not one focused on interior design. To me this means that I tend to prefer a 100% real piece that illustrates construction and form even if it is missing bits rather than a 75% or 50% real p...

wcallen

Tom uses contact cement and either rivets or stitching to make sure there isn't shifting/separation. He doesn't like fabric either. I think I have heard that others do ok with it. The leather covers the whole outer surface and wraps around the edge to the inside. The rivets/stitches go through all 3...

wcallen

When I posted the 16th c. arms and legs I hinted that there was more to come. Here it is: <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-A-170.jpg"> More details here: m This is a really early Maximilian breastplate. Triangular rolls instead of roped ones, separate sprays instead of covering the...

wcallen

Many, many years ago it was in the cathedral and on display. No pictures allowed. That was in the early 80's.

Wade

wcallen

I can't say how they were always done. I can point to a few examples. I have 4 shirts (authentic, real, made for use during the period when they were used). All 4 are done the 'wrong/easy' way. It doesn't seem to be all that wrong. I have built 2 shirts one with long sleeves the other with short. Th...

wcallen

Those pictures look a lot like Toby's effigy work is being used. Cool. Those elbows are right off the effigy - they seem to be pretty normal in England, but really whacko weird for Italy. They did a lot of floaters with flutes running this way or other odd ways. The extra cusps on the breastplate to...

wcallen

You need Toby's (yet to be published) book on English effigies. I talked to him last week and there is a lot that hasn't been published before. One of the most interesting things from your point of view is that there really does seem to be an 'English' style that is different from both the German an...

wcallen

one place to look is www.freightquote.com. It won't be cheap, but they seem to do ok for huge nutty stuff.

I end up going there to have my steel shipped from Admiral.

Wade

wcallen

Bender - missing lower plate. Possible. I will have to do some more looking. The holes are in the right places. Looking closely there are 5 arms. 1 (final, fifth one) is the normal shape so no discussion there. 2 (first and third) actually have details that indicate that they probably started out wi...

wcallen

I am going to guess that the issue with the articulation on the lot 179 piece is that the armorer actually overdid it. You've got multiple layers of overlap in the elbow, so it's easy to see it seizing up if everything doesn't slide together like clockwork. I admire the engineering, but there's som...

wcallen

James, I had that impression too when I looked at the first set of pictures I got from the auction house, and it is always possible. They included additional pictures of the inside and I have now had a chance to look at the inside up close. Inspection of the ends of the rolls seems to indicate that ...

wcallen

Normally the books and museums display the high end pieces. I have added some of what I can get - the lower/medium stuff. Some arms with pauldrons from the mid 16th c. They came out of an English property. <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-A-163.jpg"> <img src="http://www.allenantiq...

wcallen

I think that they are generally free floating in the middle. I just played with one last week, but I was more interested in the condition of the piece than how it went together. Basically it didn't work all that well, so I wasn't all that into the details. Maybe with enough cleaning it would work be...

wcallen

At least in England, no.

They hung pieces of the armour over the tomb, which made them really easy to steal over the years.

Wisby wasn't knights, it was ordinary people who had been left to ripen too long to be handled with decency.

Wade

wcallen

They are nice pictures.

Trust that they bear a resemblance to reality only after you have found his source and verified it.

He was very much into 'fixing' things.

Wade

wcallen

I have played with several pieces. Most don't seem to do much of anything to stiffen that area, at least not in general. Some have a roll/bump running down the center. Like this one: m That will stiffen it up a lot. Most don't. m m Some (as you indicated) have a crease/flute which will stiffen it to...

wcallen

We did one like that with a bar grill a long time ago. We were in a weird mood, someone had ordered a bascinet but he had really, really cool puffed and slashed clothing and we decided that he needed something early 16th c. to go with it. With his permission (of course) for the same price we built t...

wcallen

Thanks Cian. I grew up in a house where my father (a professor of medieval English) always tried to share whatever he could. I have followed his example in some ways - I collect what I can that illustrates style and technique and I share what I have with others. The new leg: m I will post pictures o...

wcallen

"The site focuses on 16th-17th c. armour" Well, you are correct. It wasn't intentional, I promise. It just focuses on what I can afford and 15th c. stuff is few and far between and outside the range of any normal human. I would really prefer to focus on 14th and 15th c stuff. If only I had...

wcallen

You may do what you want and make any style of armour you want, but I would like to reinforce the previous statement. They knew what they were doing. Many 'improvements' I have seen people attempt to make don't turn out to be improvements at all. In the same way, many times a 'simplification' can ma...

wcallen

Hmm. I forgot. There is a really, really cheap way. It works if the arms are stiff enough to take a little pressure. This 'stand': m is really just a shoulder block and a post. The shoulder block has 2 hooks on it and there are pieces of cable (like picture hanging cable) with small hooks on the end...

wcallen

My stands that carry gauntlets either: have a little extension that sticks out of the wrist that bends up (one piece of 1/4" rod works fine have a piece of wire that hooks the gauntlet Have arms with minimal hands that are relatively level where the gauntlet can rest. Don't do what I have seen ...

wcallen

A wheellock would be a blast. I used to have one that I liked but it was way to big for the kid and it had some repairs that annoyed me so I sold it. I haven't ever found a mid-16th c. sword that I was willing to pay for. I have a couple of rapiers, but they are way, way to big. Finding accoutrement...

wcallen

Steal/adapt/do whatever you want. I have made stands from square tubing, square tubing with 1/4" rod forming profiles, 1/4 and 3/8" rod forming an outline and a bunch of different wooden methods. Most of them follow the same basic design - provide just enough form to support the armour in ...

wcallen

Sean, If you were serious - m m m The first is the image of the stand you already had, the next 2 are different angles. This was a simple stand that provides enough body to reasonably support the armour and clothing. It is composed of 2 profile cuts made from 3/4" plywood. Each has a shaper cut...

wcallen

I haven't done any more work on the tassets, but I do have some more pictures and Geoffrey has worn it a few times. He seems to be able to handle it without problems. We have done trick-or-treat, wagon ride, horseback ride and wandered around at a BBQ and played with the bonfire. More pics and updat...

wcallen

I don't know about the brass rivets under discussion, but I have had some in the past that were very hard. Really, they were more trouble to deal with than the normal iron ones. The ones I have now seem to be reasonably soft.

Wade

Maximilian Breastplate

mid-late 16th c. Arms and Legs